


Not Quite the A-Team

by formosus_iniquis



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fake AH Crew, Multi, Panic Attacks, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-29
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-03-20 03:46:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 98,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3635418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/formosus_iniquis/pseuds/formosus_iniquis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Meg Turney's life was pretty good, she had the job of her dreams working as a criminal investigative reporter with SourceFed and that made up for her less than stellar life outside of work. At least it did until she managed to piss off the Corpirate - enter a stunning assassin originally sent to kill her, a demolitions expert with a hair trigger temper and dimples, and a hacker with a charming accent.</p><p>Now she just had to decide if it was harder to get rid of the Corpirate or find a way to ask the three of them out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Be sure to come back tomorrow for more exclusive news on the Corpirate and what he’s doing to the city of Los Santos. This is SourceFed News, I’m Meg Turney saying goodnight, heart you.” Meg signed off with a smile, breaking only after the lights had dimmed and she heard someone shout that they were clear, collapsing back into her chair with a heavy sigh.

Meg loved her job, she really did, DeFranco Industries had been her first big break into journalism after graduation. Before that, she’d just been doing odd jobs to keep the bills paid; but SourceFed let her finally put her journalism degree to good use by delivering the six o’clock news and a canned investigative crime report. She loved working there and she loved the people she worked with. Which was what was making it hard to decide if she wanted to stay with them or to take the job that she had been offered with the RT Corporation, the job that had been offered by Burnie Burns himself.

“Great stuff, Meg. There’s more where that came from, right? Your Corpirate coverage has a viewership almost as high as that heist last month.” Meg turned to look at her boss who had come up beside her as she walked back to her office, wrapped up in her own train of thought.

She tried to smile, but the upturn of her lips felt forced as she started to speak, “Of course Phil, you know I got the hook up.”

He either didn’t notice her grimacing or didn’t care, “Great, can you have it written and on an editor’s desk by the end of the day tomorrow? Gonna need them to look over it to make sure we don’t say anything that could get us sued. I’m not even going to ask how you got this information in the first place, just gonna pretend that it was legal.”

“Sure thing, boss, I’ll have it on Matty’s desk before I go on tomorrow night.” She said, not touching on the legality of how she actually came upon this information. She had gotten it mostly legally anyway, or as legally as you could do anything so close to the criminal capital of the country.

She had tracked down a very low ranking employee of the Corpirate’s shell company, well tracked down wasn’t the right word he kinda fell into her damn lap. Not that it mattered how she found him, all that really mattered was he was low ranking and new enough to the whole working for a criminal thing that he didn’t think twice about accepting the small payment Meg gave him to look into just where the Corpirate’s money was coming and going.

The Corpirate was far from being the biggest name in Los Santos, but Meg wasn’t dumb enough to go poking around into the Fake AH Crew’s business, and anyone who came anywhere close to their caliber could somehow be tied to the crew. He was an old name though and that’s what mattered in that business. He’d been hanging around since the Fake AH Crew had first started to move into Los Santos, and it was because he’d been there for so long that he managed to continue to hang around. He’d been grandfathered into the criminal underworld and that’s the only reason he was there and able to resist being tied to the Fake AH Crew. He had a drug network everyone knew about it, though she couldn’t prove that for certain, even with the financial report she’d paid for, which was why Phil was worried about slander charges. So she made sure her stories were phrased carefully, that way they couldn’t be sued and everyone knew that the Corpirate was responsible for the influx of cheap meth throughout the city, it was a win/win. She knew that the Corpirate and his meth supply was a huge problem for the Fake AH Crew who had a hand in the drug trade but they couldn’t regulate the Corpirate and his cheap merchandise was hard to compete against. She also knew that their leader would do pretty much anything to get rid of him, and had made a couple of unsuccessful attempts on his life already. It made for entertaining TV, it was like the underground of Los Santos was one big soap opera, hard to keep up with if you weren’t always watching and everyone wanted everyone else dead.

She’d been so lost in her own thoughts she hadn’t realized she’d made it back into her office and was sitting at her desk until Trisha stuck her head in, “More fanmail?” she asked with a grin and pulling Meg from her own head. She looked down and in her hands was a letter she had started to open that must have been sitting on her desk.

She smirked back, “Guess so, you know how the viewers love me.”

Trisha walked a little farther into Meg’s office, leaning against the doorframe now to talk to her, “Lucky you, I only get letters from pervy guys who ‘want to use my tits as pillows.’”

Meg laughed at the way Trisha wrinkled her nose in distaste, “Sorry Shish, but can you blame them they are pretty fantastic.”

“Shut up,” Trisha said with a good natured smile she was used to this kind of joking since she was one of three women working at SourceFed, all the girls were really, “I have to get to make up or I’d make you read all the perverted things this fan has to say about you.”

Meg waved her off, “I’ll let you know if anything crazy stands out, now get outta here I’m sure Steve is terrorizing them down there.”

Trisha had a nervous look in her eyes, she couldn’t help but act like the mother hen of the office and Steve was her worst behaved child, “I gotta go, I’ll see you tomorrow for your special appearance on Table Talk, right?”

Meg barely kept from groaning, she had forgotten that she had agreed to co-host the new morning talk show that Phil was trying to get off the ground. It was a good idea to get some more morning content out for their viewers, and having just started it a month ago their viewership was pretty impressive but it meant that she had to be in the studio ready to be on air and act interesting by eight tomorrow. “Sure thing, Shish.” Trisha shot her a thumbs up before starting a fast walk down the hallway to save whoever was dealing with her unwieldy co-anchor.

Meg started getting ready to go home, she hadn’t been planning on staying late tonight to begin with but now that she had to be back in the office so early, she was definitely getting out of here. She slipped her arms into her jacket, it was warm outside in the late afternoon California sun but if she didn’t wear it to her car then it would get left behind or even worse set down somewhere and lost forever. The last coat she decided to carry out instead of just wearing had been one of her favorites, and it had gotten set down somewhere after getting convinced to go back on air for live commentary on a bank heist that the Fake AH Crew was in the middle of, she hadn’t seen that hoodie again. It also had the added benefit of people from trying to pulling her on back air too. It actually made it look like she was leaving, which she was; but sometimes you could be walking out the door and next thing you know you had to be the person who knew everything about the latest exploits of Ruby Rose or the Fake AH Crew and once that happened you were stuck there for the rest of the night.

That’s what she’d be doing, if she accepted the job with RT Corporation. Their news station The Know reported almost exclusively on the constantly shifting criminal landscape of Los Santos. It was a huge promotion, she’d be one of only two anchors for the channel. Which meant that she’d always be on call to deliver the news when it broke out. She didn’t have a problem with that, it wasn’t like she needed a social life, she didn’t really have one now. She didn’t have any family out here, they were all back in Texas and they weren’t interested in coming to a place where nearly everyone has had a bullet in them at some point and it was a good week if you were only mugged once. She had friends, sort of, the SourceFed crew were all pretty close and they get along amazingly at work and even went out together on occasion but while she loved going out with Trisha or Lee, it would be nice to have someone to hang out with that she didn’t spend all day with. Then there was her love life, and well to say the least, it’s hard to have a love life when you don’t have much of a life outside of work.

Which is why, like with most nights where she wasn’t at work, she found herself wondering if it was sad that her plans consisted of her sitting in her apartment by herself with a drink and sushi. She sometimes thought about getting a dog, just to have something to come home to, but long nights at work made that seem like I might be a bad idea. Working with The Know wouldn’t make that any better though, she’d be working longer nights and busier days to keep up with the amount of news they had to cover with only two people. It was a promotion, sort of, _but_ it would force her to move to Los Santos, so she hadn’t told Phil, or anyone really, about the job offer and maybe she never would.

She was sitting in her car and wasn’t sure how long she had been there, she wasn’t sure how she’d gotten into this habit of getting so wrapped up in her own thoughts she lost track of the world around her. Groaning she said to no one, “Why is life so fucking hard sometimes?” She tried to hide her face in her hands and wound up smacking herself with the envelope she’d been opening earlier. “Might as well see what’s actually in here,” she said. Meg knew it was another bad habit but sometimes she couldn’t help but talk to herself since that was the only company she had most of the time.

She ripped open the flap and pulled out a piece of parchment, Meg flipped the page over a couple times. “The fuck,” she asked in an awed voice. Fanmail came in for the hosts of SourceFed pretty often, but the fanciest it had gotten was some nice stationary from a nice old lady who saw her special on the rise in the cat population or some shit like that. This was above and beyond though, it was parchment like something out of a story book, or what she imagined you’d find in a bottle that washed up on the beach. She stared at it for a few minutes flipping it forward and back in fascination at the effort someone must have put into this before she even bothered to read the words that were hand written on it. “Lassie, the Corpirate sends his regards, and wishes you to be aware it would serve you well to smartly shut your smart mouth. It would be wise of you to stop reporting on the Corpirate you filthy bilge rat, or you’ll find yourself walking the plank.” Meg could feel her eyes widen as she threw the paper away from her like she had been burned. Staring at where it landed propped against her passenger door, like it might make good on the threats that whoever sent it had implied.

She stabbed blindly trying to get her key into the ignition of her car, trying to escape something that was sitting beside her in the car. That was the final reason she wasn’t sure about taking this job with The Know, only reporting on crime life meant they made enemies with powerful and dangerous people. Their current reporter Ashley had a full time team, both legal and physical to protect her from whoever she might piss off and what they might send her way. Was it needed, Meg wasn’t sure, it wasn’t exactly a secret that Ashely was dating Burnie she kinda figured that fact alone kept her safer than her bodyguard Blaine.

If she was being honest, and you had to be with yourself she thought, she was scared shitless. She’d heard some horror stories about what can happen in this business, about what happens when you piss the wrong people off. They disappear or they’re used as a message to other reporters who might make the same mistake. Meg was far enough outside of the actual city where it never occurred that she might have to worry about receiving threats from one of the city’s big baddies, but there it was sitting menacingly in her seat. She knew in the city that some investigative journalists treated their death threats like badges of honor, until someone was actually good on those threats.

She sped back to her empty apartment, not daring to look at her passenger seat, like she might actually find someone sitting there instead of the paper. She dropped her keys three times trying to get them in the lock, the metal scraping against the key hole but refusing to go in. Her struggles were eventually rewarded as her door swung open and she rushed into her living room. She slammed the door shut, flicked the lock and put the security chain in place before falling against her secured door with a gasp, her pulse and breathing erratic like she’d sprinted up the stairs to her apartment rather than taking the elevator up. After looking over every inch of her apartment, looking in the closet, under the bed, and any other possible hiding place a person could find, and finding nothing is when Meg could finally let herself relax a little bit. Then she went through her apartment again, she double checked the locks on all of her windows and, for the first time since moving in, she was thankful that the fire escape was on the other side of the building.

After her first screening of the apartment, she felt a little more at ease. After the second, she actually let herself sit down for a moment. After the fourth, she let herself turn on the TV for background noise, and then immediately shut it off again when the voices of the actors had her thinking someone had broken in. And after the sixth time when she had gone through and made sure all of the windows were bolted shut once more, she let herself take a speedy shower and change for bed. The bed that she laid in, wide awake, for hours, watching as the clock passed three and four when exhaustion finally forced her to sleep.

She woke up with her heart hammering in her chest and the feeling that she might have been screaming moments earlier, waking from a dream she couldn’t remember. “It was just a letter,” she muttered to herself as she turned toward her alarm clock to check the time. “Shit,” she cursed, it was half past seven and she had slept through her alarm, unsurprisingly since it was supposed to go off at five-thirty and she’d been up until four. Months of working at SourceFed made her certain that there was no way she could get there and be ready to go on air by the time Table Talk was supposed to start. She had her phone in her hand and ringing before she had figured out what she was going to say. “Phil, hey it’s me.”

“Meg, what’s up? I’m in the building, we can talk in person if you want.”

“I would but I’m not there yet,” she said already feeling terrible about bailing on Phil at the last minute, “I over slept and I won’t be able to make it in for the show this morning.”

She didn’t mention the threat, she didn’t mention the letter at all, or that it was why she over slept, even though she knew she should. She was thinking about it, she could feel the words clawing at the back of her throat trying to get out, so that someone else would know what was going on. Then that anxious voice in the back of her head chimed in. ‘He won’t be able to do anything about it, it’s just a threat and you don’t even know if it’s real or not,’ it said making her feel childish. She chose to stay silent.

She heard Phil sigh on the other end of the line, “If you’re sure you won’t be able to make it in, we’ll try to find someone to replace you last second, maybe the intern Sam.”

It was his boss voice, he didn’t use it very often and it made her feel even shittier than she did before. “I’m so sorry Phil, I’m getting ready now I’ll be in as soon as I can.”

He must have been able to hear how awful she sounded through the phone because he sounded less upset when he answered, “Just get here safe, I need you to finish that Corpirate story like you said.” He hung up after that, not realizing that those few words sent a jolt of panic through her.

She crawled out of bed, already feeling every second of sleep she didn’t get the night before and when she got into the bathroom she didn’t bother to look in the mirror. She just dug through her make-up until she found the concealer she would need to cover the bags under her eyes. Looking up to start putting it on, she caught sight of the bags, more like six piece luggage set, she was carrying under her eyes. Meg felt awful for whoever had to get her ready for when she had to be on camera, even with the heavy coverage she was putting on herself to look more human, she would still spend the day looking exhausted.

It took an extra ten minutes to get herself ready because the circles under her eyes refused to be covered by any of the foundation or concealer she had, which meant she came into the writer’s room five minutes after Table Talk had ended and fifteen after she had hoped to be there. Steve was already there, giggling at something on Reddit, he looked up at her as she walked in, “You feelin’ okay, baby you’re looking a little pale.”

Meg smiled, or she tried to she wasn’t sure if the muscles in her face were moving in a way that made a smile instead of a grimace, “Just had a rough night is all, didn’t get much sleep.”

“That’s why you bailed on the show this morning,” Trisha asked coming into the room and added in a scandalized voice, “were you out doing things with boys all night?”

“What Shish, no.” Meg said, confused about what she had said to Steve that made Trisha assume that.

“Doing things with girls all night?” Steve asked in his fakey douchebag character voice.

“I didn’t do stuff with anyone last night,” she said, sleep deprivation tinging her voice strongly with annoyance, “male or female. Sorry I wasn’t here this morning, my alarm didn’t go off.”

Trisha’s desire to coddle the people she considered friends outweighed her anger at Meg for missing the show this morning. “Sorry lady, are you sure you wanna be here you shoulda just called in sick you look…”

Elliott walked in before she had finished her thought, “You look like shit,” he said unintentionally finishing Trisha’s thought for her.

“No, no,” Trisha scolded.

“Don’t you have a pop piece to write,” Meg asked. She could snark with Elliott, that was part of their routine. She could snark with Elliott and write up her piece on the Corpirate, it would be like a normal day. “Why don’t you let the real journalists get some work done?”

Meg pulled up her notes from her Corpirate story, determined to finish it despite the nauseous feeling she had in her stomach at the idea of doing so, but she felt that she owed it to Phil to get the story done like she said she would. It was bad enough that she had disappointed him this morning by bailing on Table Talk.

“Claws are coming out from, Turney. See if I invite you to Happy Hour next week, there goes your excuse to drink on the job.”

Meg laughed before pulling her headphones on and turning her focus on to her computer screen, being at work and surrounded by people made her feel a lot better and safer than she had last night or this morning. “How will I go on.”

Meg worked through lunch to make sure the story was done and on Matty’s desk earlier than promised, partially because she wanted to get back in the boss’ good books but mostly because she wanted to make sure her report was phrased carefully enough where she could still report the news she had without risking another threat. She knew it would sound stilted but it had to go through two filters before she felt comfortable sending it to Matty, so if it sounded awkward then that’s just what had to happen.

Phil found her while she was sitting in their kitchen making up for the lunch she had worked through. “You look sick, are you going to be able to record today?” he asked with his special brand of concern.

“I think I’ll be good as long as I can have a professional make me look a little more alive.”

“Awesome, Matty already looked over your script. When you’re done here get ready cause I want you recording in an hour.”

“Sure thing, boss,” Meg answered with a salute.

It was a good thing that she wasn’t going on live that night, because her pre-recorded segment was a mess. Her script had been very generalized, in an effort to both make Matty’s job easier and not risk learning if the threat she received was actually real. She stumbled through her first few reads, stuttering through sentences and struggling to read her own words off the teleprompter. She had almost made it through a read successfully, frustrated that it was her fourth or fifth time trying to get through the script, when DJ made her stop. “Your hands are shaking, we can’t use this one.” She apologized and they took it back from the start.

Meg hadn’t realized she was shaking until it was pointed out to but now that she had to redirect that energy she realized that she was scared; or maybe anxious was the right word, she had never been put in a situation like this and she didn’t know how to deal with it. She knew on some level that the best way to handle it was to tell someone, Phil at the very least should know, but what if she was wrong. If she was wrong about this being a real threat, or about waiting so long to tell someone, or about taking the letter and touching it; all she could think about were the ways that she could have already messed this up and it created an odd sort of peace to just ignore it. She could pretend like it was fake, a mean spirited prank, people did shit like that all the time. One threat wasn’t the same as actually being in danger, and she had pepper spray if anyone actually tried to attack her.

She kept thinking about that, or not thinking about it in this case. It was enough to let her get through the read without messing it up too badly, and she was feeling  a little better when she came back into the writer’s room to get her things and leave for the night. Ignorance was bliss, was apparently right, or pretending to be ignorant was bliss.

She waved goodbye to Elliott and Joe, who were both going over topics for Happy Hour before it started, and as she threw her purse on her shoulder and walked out the door she ran right into Trisha. “Oh Meg, I was worried you’d left already. This came in for you,” Trisha winked as she handed Meg one of the envelopes in her hand, “looks like the same one from yesterday, someone has _quite_ the fan.”

Meg took the envelope from her hand, she could feel the fear and anxiety she’d pushed away earlier come crashing back around in her in waves. She wasn’t sure if she responded to Trisha, she thought she felt her mouth moving but wasn’t sure if words actually came out as she pushed past the other woman. She didn’t bother to read the letter, she didn’t even bother to open it and see if the parchment paper from last time was there. Trisha was right, it looked _exactly_ the same as the last letter she had received and Meg didn’t want to know what was inside this one.

She didn’t know how the Corpirate knew, because there wouldn’t be another letter if he didn’t know somehow, that she’d recorded another exposé. She didn’t want it in her house, her car, or in her hand for one more second. She wanted to set it on fire because she felt deep down that watching it burn would be therapeutic, but she didn’t have a lighter, and that should not be the first problem she thought of instead like not setting a fire in the middle of a news station. She settled for punching the swinging lid on the trashcan and dropping the letter inside as she hurried out the door.

Cupping her hands, she pressed her face against the window looking in to see if there was anyone waiting for her that shouldn’t be. She felt silly when there was nothing there, but she remembered all of the episodes of cop dramas that wouldn’t exist if the woman had just looked in her damn backseat and she didn’t feel as silly. With her eyes darting to her rear view mirror every couple minutes, checking for a tail that she didn’t think would really be there. Meg drove home where she repeated her routine from the night before.

It didn’t take as long for sleep to take her as it had the previous night, maybe it was because she was so tired from not sleeping last night, but she woke up a couple hours later in a cold sweat and couldn’t force herself to go back to sleep. It was only six but she decided to cut her loses and go into work. She wasn’t supposed to work any of the morning shows, but after bailing on them yesterday the least she could do is go in and offer to help; and if no one needed it she could get a jump start on her own work before she had to be on live at six that night.

They hadn’t needed her, not a big surprise. SourceFed wasn’t a huge production, and the few anchors they had rarely missed when they had agreed to make an appearance on one of the shows. It was rare that they needed someone to cover, yesterday being the first time Meg had ever missed an appearance she was set to make and the first that anyone had missed since she had started working there. Table Talk had a full cast this morning as she watched from the sidelines, it had already been set that Lee and Steve would be on that morning, and Phil had told her as she was standing there that the intern Sam had been such a hit the morning before that they decided to bring him back.

Another hit from yesterday, Phil had told her, was her Corpirate story. They had aired it on the eleven o’clock and it had blown up, responses to it were blowing up on all of their social media feeds and their older viewers had been calling their landline nonstop. “Not to put you on the spot, but I’m going to need more of that,” he said. She knew it was a request not an order but she didn’t want to disappoint her boss especially since she was thinking about leaving him a person short and had yet to tell him; and though she _had_ received one threat and an additional envelope that she _assumed_ had a threat inside, nothing had actually happened to her yet. As of eleven last night, two stories had gone out revealing the misdeeds of the Corpirate and his business, and if the threats were legitimate someone with a reputation like his would have acted already, she thought with mild certainty.

“I think I have enough for one more story, but after that I’ll have to get back in touch with my guy on the inside.”

Phil’s smile was sincere and blinding, “Knew I could count on you, Turney.”

She spent the rest of the day digging through what little she had left on the Corpirate, she hadn’t intended on stretching the information her informant had given her into three parts. With as carefully as she had worded the report from the day before she wasn’t left with much to write about today, a prerecorded segment like this one didn’t have to be long but she needed at least a minute or two to make it worth anyone’s time. She spent a few hours that morning writing it out, struggling for the first time to hit an acceptable word count for a story. After she’d finished she gave it to Joe to look over, as one of the veteran reporters with SourceFed, she hoped that he could read over her story and tell her just what was missing and making it sound so lackluster. “You sound like you’re afraid to piss someone off, it really doesn’t sound like you. Just write, don’t worry about what’s going to happen when someone reads it. If it’s too bad they’ll fix it in editing.”

She thanked him, Joe didn’t realize that what could happen when someone read it was they could try to kill her, but it was good advice.

At this point, nothing had actually happened to her. Sure, she’d gotten a letter claiming to be from the Corpirate and she’d taken that letter very seriously, but no one had _actually_ tried to hurt her. She wouldn’t change that much in her story, but she did have enough information from her source that if she would stop tip-toeing around her own story she could put to good use. It was time to start acting like the only thing that was actually out for her was her anxiety and hyper-active imagination, they were the only things that had been working against her over the past couple days that she could prove.

She had her story rewritten and on an editor’s desk just in time to get ready for her own show at six and by the time she got finished she had Phil standing off on the sidelines waiting for her. A weird feeling of déjà vu settled in the pit of her stomach but she shook it off when he started talking, “This might be the best one yet, can you record this tonight?”

“Whatever you need, boss.”

“Great, take DJ and get it done so we can run it with the eleven o’clock.” DJ looked up when he heard his name and looked at her skeptically, probably remembering yesterday and how long it took her to successfully record the segment. Now it was eight o’clock and Phil expected the story recorded, edited, and ready to air by eleven. She knew that they had barely gotten the story recorded by six the day before and that with the editing that had to be done to make it usable it had barely been runnable by the nightly news cycle. Now Phil wanted all that done in half of the time, Meg could understand why DJ looked a little panicked by the idea.

Meg didn’t use the phrase knocked it out of the park lightly, but she totally did, knock it out of the park that is.

She got the piece recorded on their first take, and while they would normally record it once more, just to have an extra that may be better, it was good enough to go to the editing bay. She waited around for an hour or so, to see if they would need to do any reshooting but after what must have been very minimal editing she got a thumbs up from DJ as he left editing. She took that as permission to leave and went back into the writer’s room to get her stuff and bounce. When she walked into the writer’s room, she saw Trisha handing out the mail again. “Hey lady, you heading out?”

“Yeah, been here since seven, and I am so ready to go home. Anything for me?”

“Not today, guess your fan couldn’t do three days in a row.”

Meg didn’t know how to feel, and the mixed emotions twisted in her gut. It was one part fear at the idea that if the threats aren’t coming in any longer that meant she was past threatening and that meant the next step was action. Then there was happiness at no more threats, because she could pretend that no more threats meant this nightmare of a week was over. She smiled at Trisha, “Maybe tomorrow they’ll come through.”

She went through her routine again that night, checking all of the rooms and windows, but feeling somehow safer than she had the previous two nights. She only checked her apartment three times, instead of the six and seven she had to on the first two nights and she felt safe enough to flip her TV on and leave it on to add some noise in her apartment.

She left it on as she started to go to bed and heard her own voice echoing through the room as her special report on the Corpirate went out for the people to see. It was weird to hear her own voice bouncing through her apartment when she wasn’t actually talking, but if she distanced herself and acted like it was just some local news guy, she could let herself admit that it was a pretty good report. It was compelling, maybe a little sassy, and definitely much less gingerly worded than the last report she had given on the subject. It was a story she was proud of, but the letter she had received two days ago forced its way into her thoughts, this story was definitely not her keeping her smart mouth shut.

She went to sleep a little worried, maybe she should have gone with the script she had written before but, even as the thought was occurring to her, she knew she didn’t really regret the script she ended up using. It felt like she was finally starting to act like herself again, and maybe that would come back to bite her; but right now she was proud that even in a small way she’d fought back.

The radio silence that came after was worse than the threats.

She was waiting for something, god was she waiting for something; because even if the earlier threats from before hadn’t been real, she had pretty much called out the Corpirate, and that was something that she was going to pay for. The two days of silence, that was cruel punishment but it definitely felt like a lead up to something bigger.

She jumped whenever someone came up behind her, she almost shrieked when Lee grabbed her shoulder when she had her headphones in, and she was starting to wish that something would happen so she had a reason to feel so damn jumpy.

Her wish came true two days later, and in the middle of a work day. Meg was in her own office because she had two stories to get done and the writer’s room wasn’t conducive for actually getting work done, when Trisha came by. “This came in for you today,” she said handing Meg a small package, “is your special fan making a reappearance.”

Meg felt her stomach drop as she held the package in her hands, “I don’t think so, thanks for bringing it by Shish.”

Trisha smiled, accepting Meg’s dismissal without a fuss, and left without another word. Meg took a pair of scissors from a cup on her desk and, with shaky hands, sliced open the package that was sitting on her desk. She opened the box slowly, afraid it might literally blow up in her face, and when nothing happened she glanced in. There was a picture of her informant from inside the Corpirate’s business sitting at the top of the box. His face was bloody and beaten, and it looked as though he was crying out in pain when the photographer had captured the picture. A sick feeling settled in the pit of her stomach as she pulled the photograph out of the box, the feeling deepened as her fingers brushed against the back of the photo and came away sticky. She brought her hand away from the photo slowly, her fingers were dark, flipping the photo she saw that the back had a thin coating of blood.

Dark fascination had her looking back in the box, it was small enough that she knew there wouldn’t be a head or something so gruesome; but the tongue that had once belonged to the man who had supplied her with the Corpirate’s books was shocking none the less. It was a message, that those who spoke out against the Corpirate didn’t continue to speak and it was there to let Meg know that she was next. The thought actually made her sick and she buried her head in the trash can by her desk as she felt her lunch come back with a vengeance. When there was nothing left to leave her stomach the feeling of anxiety slipped in, she didn’t need a photograph to know that the man that had once belonged to that tongue had been killed and that there was going to be someone coming after her.

She had to get out, it was the only thing on her mind. She couldn’t breathe and she could feel the walls around her starting to creep toward her. She groped blindly behind her until felt her fingers wrap around the strap of her purse, she dragged it behind her as she fled the building and headed in the direction of her apartment building.

She was almost at the door to her building when she could feel her lungs actually filling all the way when she breathed in. That was also when she noticed a young woman who was almost skipping along beside her. Meg stopped walking and the other woman stopped as well. She ran her hands over her black skirt, smoothing it down from where it had flipped up and revealed the red tulle underneath it. With the black shirt she was wearing, her outfit would have looked very put together, if it weren’t for the red hoodie she was wearing and the combat boots she had somehow managed to skip in. “Can I help you?”

The woman laughed, “Maybe, you’re Meg Turney right?”

She had felt unsettled by the woman before, unsure when she had started to follow her or who she was but, now that she had asked Meg’s name, it seemed like she was just a fan. “I am, are you a fan? I can sign something or take a picture if you want.”

The woman laughed even harder at that, “Oh no, nothing like that. You are pretty cute though and you’re the only reporter who covers my activity fairly.”

Meg felt confused, trying to figure out if she should know the woman standing in front of her, smirking at her. “I- I’m sorry. This is embarrassing but do I know you?”

A smile broke across the woman’s face and it had Meg feeling like she had just made herself the punchline to a joke she didn’t know was being told. “Not my face, but you know my name and my work.”

“What? Are you fucking Banksy?” Meg asked, irritation making her sound snarky and she was not liking the other woman’s teasing attitude it had her feeling like some mouse a cat was playing with. A feeling she couldn’t shake even though she kept reminding herself that she didn’t know this woman or have any reason to think that she would hurt her.

The woman giggled at Meg’s comment, “Nothing that legal. You’re funny though, that’s too bad, I think we could have been friends if you weren’t work.” Her gaze hardened and it sent a chill down Meg’s spine, she realized that the girl had been using her for fun before, but now that it was time to work things were getting much more serious. “I’ll give you one more guess, take a second.” If Meg weren’t starting to get the sense that this might be the last thing she’d ever hear, the woman’s tone might border on sexy. It was coy and teasing. It made it clear that she was anticipating something much more satisfying in a couple minutes, that all of this was just foreplay.

She listened to her though, and looked more carefully at the woman in front of her, as if it would give her some clue as to who she was and why she should know her. She had shoulder length red hair that was loose around her shoulders and blunt bangs that brought attention to her eyes that were dancing to match the smirk on her face. The hood was down on her red hoodie, but it looked like it would be huge on the girl, the red fabric would probably cover her entire face if she pulled it up. That’s when things started to click in Meg’s mind, and she could tell the other woman knew it too. Meg’s eyes darted down and she noticed the hilt of a knife, tucked carefully into the woman’s skirt, which she hadn’t noticed before. As her eyes widened and made their way back to the woman’s face she saw a red and silver necklace, almost hidden by the hoodie she had on, in the shape of a scythe. “You’re Rr…” was all Meg managed to choke out.

A slow smile broke out across the woman’s face and she took a mocking curtsey. “Ruby Rose, at your service. Now don’t run, you’ll only make it worse for yourself.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come talk to me on my blong, [formosusiniquis](http://formosusiniquis.tumblr.com/), all chapters and updates on progress will be posted here and my ask is always open

The look of terror on people's faces, that was probably the best part of the job. The slow realization that this stranger in front of them was definitely going to kill them finally showing on their face. That’s why she did it like this, she always tried to get up close and personal, it’s how the reporters could tell it was a Ruby Rose hit and not one of the other girls. She couldn’t do it all the time, but when she sniped someone off a building instead of slicing them open like usual she never got the credit for it. People called in Ruby Rose, or as a newbie reporter at the LS Times had tried to coin the Ruby Reaper, if they wanted to make a statement; and whoever wanted Meg Turney dead really wanted to make a statement.

There was no name attached to the order, she just got the call in saying they wanted Meg Turney to disappear and they wanted it to send a message. They didn’t ask for Lindsay specifically but, unless she’s already got a hit that she’s working on, the hits that want the biggest show go to her. Lindsay had created a reputation around giving her customers the biggest bang for their buck without the deviation that Yang gave with hers. So no one questioned her methods, she got up close and her victims saw her face before they went. It didn’t really matter, she had a perfect kill count so whoever saw her didn’t get the chance to go talking about it.

It always happened in stages, always the same but with subtle differences that kept it interesting, as they figured out what was going to happen to them. First, they were curious, like Meg they wanted to know just who was following them. It was innocent most of the time, confused by this person who was following them but willing to help if she needed it. Then they got suspicious, Lindsay would admit that she was a little quick to drop their whole name on them, but otherwise it just dragged on for so long and she got impatient. Then they got nervous, Lindsay wouldn’t lie by saying she didn’t practice her creepy, about-to-murder-you smile in the mirror for a few minutes, and it worked to set whoever saw it on edge. It was nothing compared to the crazy eyes that Ryan worked up behind that emotionless skull mask he always wore, but their performance styles had always been different. After the nervousness they always got flighty, she always warned them that it wasn’t in their best interests to run but it wasn’t very often that they listened. It seemed like Meg was going to listen, which Lindsay appreciated, chasing people down was such a hassle. Blood always got everywhere when things got going and it’s a bitch and a half to get blood out of the tulle in her skirt; it sounds cliché but it really was much easier for everyone if they would just do what they were told, well easier for Lindsay anyway and that’s all that really mattered. Meg seemed to get that or maybe she was just too terrified to run, Lindsay had to admit she didn’t really care either way, it made her job easier as Meg skipped straight to the last step before she finished her job, bargaining.

Lindsay could hear her trying to keep her voice steady as she started to make her last pleading attempts for her life, “I would try asking you not to kill me, but I don’t think that would really make much of a difference right now, would it?”

If she weren’t a professional Lindsay would have broken character at that. This was something new. She’d never had someone willingly accept and actually admit that they knew that their begging wouldn’t do anything. She wasn’t sure how to handle it, so she figured honesty was usually the best policy, “No, it really won’t.”

The grimace was all that really showed that Meg wasn’t as unaffected as she was maybe trying to act. “Before you do, whatever it is you’re going to do to me,” she took a shaky breath in and Lindsay felt a stab of regret for what she was going to do that she hadn’t felt since she first started this job. “Before you do it, can you at least tell me if it was the Corpirate that called it in? It’s going to kill me if I don’t know.” She winced at her poor choice of words but Lindsay had stopped listening once she had heard just who Meg thought was responsible for her own hit.

The fucking Corpirate, she should have expected something when she saw the price tag attached to this job. It was really too good to be true when the target was a reporter, and a reporter who hadn’t had any other hits put out on her before. This was the Hilda job all over again, she’d sacrificed a month working that job and tracking that woman with the promise of a five figure payout, all thrown to shit because the hit was taken out from under her. She learned later, from Barb who always seemed to know what had happened when someone got screwed over, that the guy who had taken her hit had been bragging about it. The Corpirate had taken the information she’d given him in her last update and given it to someone willing to take the job for a much cheaper price. A month’s work and a paycheck she’d really been counting on, gone in a flash. She’d been less concerned about the money, she wasn’t stupid with her money and had enough cash in bank accounts around the globe that she could retire now if she wanted to, but her time was precious and a month long gig meant a whole month of other work she had lost out on. She didn’t appreciate how little the Corpirate had valued her time, and Meg had given her the perfect opportunity to get a little payback with this asshole that fucked her over.

“Well Meg, I think that we can actually help each other out.”

Meg who had until this point been silently waiting to see just what Lindsay would do, looked back at her confused. “I’m sorry, how is that?”

Lindsay smiled, trying to look reassuring and normal now, instead of cold and creepy. “Turns out we have something in common now, the Corpirate wants you dead and I want the asshole to pay.”

Meg was beginning to relax, not a lot but Lindsay didn’t expect that she was still the person who’d been sent to kill her, but Lindsay could see some of the about to be murdered tension slip away as she kept an eye on her. “What can I do that’s going to help Ruby Rose, master assassin?”

"You got close enough to have him spooked, don't know what you did but it worked. So we can do it again and this time you'll have me so he won't come after you when this is all done."

"No offense, but can you not just do this yourself? You're Ruby Rose of the RWBY assassins-“

Lindsay held up her hand and the woman fell silent instantly, just one more clue that she was still terrified at what Lindsay might do to her, “Look if we _are_ going to work together, and that’s really our best option at this point, you’re going to _have_ to call me Lindsay.”

Meg nodded and Lindsay couldn’t decide what to call the look on her face, she managed to look both stunned and terrified at the same time. Obviously, the name thing was a big deal. Lindsay didn’t like to think of herself as a criminal, she was providing a service that people were willing to pay a lot of money for; but names were sensitive information in this business, whether you considered yourself a criminal or not, and Meg was smart enough to know that. It occurred to Lindsay a few seconds later just how sensitive names were, she didn’t hang out with a lot of people who didn’t already know her name and, aside from clients, when she worked with someone she usually went by her actual name over all that code name bullshit. But Meg still wasn’t sure if Lindsay was going to kill her or not, the fact that she now knew Lindsay’s actual name that meant she was would wind up dead or a criminal too, that wasn't necessarily true but those two were really the most likely options. Which one it ended up being would depend on how this fight with the Corpirate went. “Alright, Lindsay,” Meg said her name like she was trying it out or maybe just like she was testing to see how long Lindsay’s charitableness would last either way Lindsay liked the way it sounded rolling around in the redhead’s mouth, “do you have a plan?”

Lindsay looked around to figure out just where they were, and realized that they were still in the middle of the sidewalk in front of an alley. She knew all too well that it was possible that the Corpirate could have sent someone else to try to scoop her kill, they’d been standing out in the open for too long. She didn’t think she’d been tailed because she’d found Meg and her opening earlier than she thought she would, but years in this job had created a deep sense of paranoia that she couldn’t shake. “Let’s go back to your apartment and we can figure out what our next step is.”

It was a trait that they shared, apparently, because Meg did not look excited about taking Lindsay back to her apartment. “We could do that, or we could go to the coffee place down the street that always has lots of witnesses in it.”

Lindsay refrained from rolling her eyes, because she’s a good person like that but the sass just couldn’t be held back, “If you’re worried about me knowing where your apartment is, my car is already parked in front of the building. If you’re worried about me killing you still, I need you alive because you apparently know someone close to the Corpirate. If you think a public place is going to keep me from killing you anyway, you should know that half of Weiss’ hits happen while she’s sitting across from them and I can do the same.”

“My place it is then.” Meg said, Lindsay had heard people more happily agree to have limbs removed.

She laughed at Meg’s tone, she couldn't help it that her sense of humor was a little warped. “You know I’ve never heard someone so upset to be bringing me back to their place.

“All of the party poppers are in my apartment, so you’ll have to wait for the fanfare.”

“I can’t decide if you’re kidding or not, but I’m really hoping you’re serious.”

Meg didn’t say anything but her eyebrows said what her mouth didn’t. But what could Lindsay say, she was easy to please and party poppers sounded like fun.

Meg's apartment complex wasn't far from where they'd first stopped, it wasn't far from the SourceFed office either which is where Lindsay had been following her from. It was small, quaint she figured was a better word, Lindsay was certain she should have been able to afford a bigger place than this, rooms were cheap when you were still this close to Los Santos. But it fit Meg's personality, she thought and immediately fussed at herself she doesn't know this girl past what she had noticed through researching her, and that doesn’t really count.

Lindsay had done the minimum amount of research on Meg when she'd take this job, no more or less than she'd usually do, but she liked to learn on the job. People were weird and there were some things that they did that you couldn't get from a piece of paper with their background on it. She had done enough research that she knew Meg's car was sitting in the lot not far from her own. It was an unconscious instinct to calculate potential escape routes for the people she was tracking, and she knew Meg could try to run down the street or she could try her car. Meg made no move to head toward her car, she just walked Lindsay to her apartment door looking back just to make sure Lindsay was still following behind her. Meg went to open her front door and stilled, "Have you been in here already?" she asked in a shaky voice.

Lindsay peered around her shoulder and saw what had made Meg stop. Her door was opened, just a crack not enough for Lindsay to have noticed until Meg had said something. Someone had definitely been in the other woman's apartment though and the sliver that the door was cracked open meant they were either sloppy or they were still in there. "No I wasn't, now get behind me.”

Meg did as she was told, moving so that she was behind Lindsay before Lindsay pushed open the door. She kicked it open, shoving Meg back as she took a step backward. Lindsay didn’t really think that there would be a trip-wire tied to the door or anything, it was too unpredictable. But with someone who was sloppy enough not to close the door all the way after breaking into someone’s apartment, you couldn’t be too sure.

When nothing blew up she took a few steps into the room, she knew Meg had seen her knife because she always made it very obvious when she went on hits, but she didn’t pull her gun from where it was hidden. It was a small 380 pistol, easy to hide and was good if things went south, but it didn’t have a big scare factor if someone saw you carrying it. Meg's living room was empty and by extension her kitchen was also, she trailed in behind Lindsay sticking close to her heels. Lindsay glanced at the two doors she had left to check and turned to Meg, “What’s through those?” It wasn’t so much a question as she was trying to decide if it was safe to leave Meg standing where she was in the living room.

“Bedroom and bathroom,” she said pointing to the doors in turn.

Lindsay nodded, if there was going to be someone here they would be in the bedroom not the bathroom and either way she would be heading straight for whoever would be coming in or out of the room. “Stay here,” she told Meg, “if you see someone who isn’t me shout.”

“How am in a situation where an assassin is the person I want to see.” Meg muttered. Lindsay was pretty sure she wasn’t supposed to hear it but she smiled anyway. She went toward the bedroom wondering how she’d gotten in a situation where she was going to a pretty girl’s bedroom to look for a killer instead of a pretty girl, she figured the feelings of dismay were pretty much the same.

She cleared both rooms quickly, checking every inch of both the bedroom and the distressingly small bathroom. “You’re good,” she said, coming back into the living room to find Meg sitting on her couch staring at a large brown box. “What’s wrong,” she asked instantly on the alert again.

“I got one of these at work,” she said in a small voice.

“Yeah, what was in it?”

Meg swallowed, her eyes never leaving the box in front of her, “The guy I had on the inside.”

She stopped speaking and while Lindsay had a pretty good idea of just where this was going she needed to hear it from Meg, if Meg couldn’t face just what was happening to her than it was going to make the rest of this much more difficult. “What about him,” she prompted, trying to keep her voice firm but light.

She swallowed again, like the words she had to say were slowly choking her and this was the only way to handle it. “A box came in this morning,” she started and Lindsay wondered if she thought starting the sentence differently would make it easier to say, “and it had a picture of him and he was all bloody and underneath that,” she paused and sucked in a deep breath before pushing out, “it was his tongue.”

Meg looked a little green as she stared at the box, from where Lindsay was standing, she could see that the bottom of the box was darker than the rest and she had a couple guesses as to why that was. “Are you going to open it?”

“Yeah,” Meg said, making no move to actually do so.

“You want me to open it?”

“Yeah.”

Lindsay pulled the knife from her skirt, slicing through the tape on the box in a clean swipe, and looked inside. She was unfortunately right about just what was inside the box, she didn’t know who Meg’s guy on the inside was but she was willing to bet it was the person whose head was in the box on Meg’s coffee table. “Don’t look,” she started to warn but Meg was already standing up and peering into the box she had gotten.

Her face lost the green color it had before, she looked like every ounce of blood had drained from her face, actually, Lindsay had seen what that looks like and Meg somehow looked paler than that. “Do you need to lie down,” she asked not really sure how to handle this situation. It wasn’t exactly comforting to say your first severed head is always the worst and the Se7en joke she wanted to make probably wasn’t appropriate in this situation.

Meg shook her head frantically and tripped off of the couch and into her small bathroom. Lindsay followed hesitantly, not sure what to do or if she should even be there Meg was clinging to the toilet so she asked, “Do you want me to leave?” Meg managed a small shake of her head before she was puking. Lindsay crouched beside her and rubbed small circles into the small of Meg’s back while murmuring what she hoped was comforting nonsense. After a few minutes of sitting there Meg looked like she had settled down a little bit, she had stopped puking anyway and she had more color to her face, both of which seemed like they were steps in the right direction. “I’m going to take care of a few things,” she told her, and Meg was an intelligent person so Lindsay was sure she realized that one of those things was the head on her table but it seemed like it would be better if that wasn’t something she actually mentioned. “When you feel up to it you might want to change, it’ll help you feel a little better.”

She left the bathroom with one last pat on Meg’s back, she felt bad about leaving the poor girl like that. But she was pretty sure if Meg left the bathroom and that box was still sitting on the table, Lindsay could kiss any chance she had of getting her involved in taking down the Corpirate goodbye. So Lindsay left her curled up on the floor so that she could start cleaning up the mess that was in the living room.

The word of the day was apparently sloppy because the asshole who did this didn't know what the hell he was doing. She walked back into Meg's living room, keeping an ear out in case she called out for her. The box was still on the coffee table where she had set it before following Meg into the bathroom. She had seen all she'd needed to with her first glance to know it was an amateur job, probably someone who thought they could play Deadpool and responded to a Craigslist ad. She didn’t mess with full decapitations, there was a reason that someone had tried to make the Ruby Reaper name stick and there had been a few slit throats that had been close, but whoever had done this had learned about being a hitman through videogames and bad movies. The cuts were jagged, like they’d started and stopped a few times as they learned that they didn’t have the stomach for this kind of work. Things looked like they really went all to hell when they found that the spinal column wasn’t something they could just slice their way through.

She figured that whoever had done this had immediately dropped the head into the box to be taken to Meg, there was a thin layer of newspaper lining the bottom of the box soaking up the pool of blood. Lifting the box high enough to look at the bottom to make sure that none of it was seeping through, she set the box down on the floor before walking over to Meg’s kitchenette and digging around until she found the cleaning products she was looking for.

It didn’t matter if there were fingerprints covering the box and every flat surface in Meg’s apartment, she was going to wipe it down. She felt a little bad for the family of this guy, a nasty habit in her line of work that she still struggled with from time to time, because they would probably never know what happened to him. She spent a few minutes with the strongest cleaner she could find under Meg’s sink that she didn’t think would bleach her table, just scrubbing at the space where the box had been. Not because she thought that there was anything on the table but she knew there was a peace of mind that came from cleaning the area that she thought would help Meg feel a little better.

Lindsay may not have looked that far into Meg’s life, but she did look into the area that Meg lived in. she knew when people on the block came home and went to work, she had a rough idea of the usual traffic patterns, and most importantly she knew what days the dumpsters were picked up. Body disposal was so much easier than the movies had you believe, sure if you really wanted them gone you could go with the acid and stuff, but it really wasn’t any harder to get rid of a body than it was to get rid of a rug, and she didn’t even have a whole body to get rid of. Once she was satisfied that the table had been cleaned, she grabbed the box off the floor and closed it securely to make sure nothing go into the box before it was well on its way to the dump.

She listened to see if Meg had moved from her position on the bathroom floor, and when she didn’t hear the woman moving she took the box and walked out the door. She was heading to the nearest dumpster with a pickup that next morning, it was only a few blocks away, but she hoped in the thirty or so minutes that she was walking that nothing would happen to her while she was gone.

–

Meg got herself up off of the bathroom floor a few minutes after she heard her front door shut. She followed Lindsay’s advice, and it still felt weird to be calling Ruby Rose by her real name but she tried to pretend that this meant they were friends and ignore the stabbing fear that it really meant she was delaying her own death.

Really when she thought about it, tonight she had been stalked by and, she would like to think, hit on a little bit by what most considered an urban legend; and, until she started hugging her toilet bowl, she hadn’t embarrassed herself too badly. She threw on a pair of sweats and curled up in the corner of her couch, the feeling of relief that the box was gone was impossible to ignore and she didn’t want to think of how Lindsay planned on getting rid of it as far as she was concerned the thing had just vanished. The smell of disinfectant was strong and soothing in a way she didn't know artificial lemon could be. She must have zoned out because the next thing she knows the room has gotten dark around her and Lindsay is walking back through her front door. “You really should have locked that,” she said, she didn’t sound mad but like she had been worried that Meg wouldn’t be on the other side of the door when she opened.

“Sorry.” Meg looked up at Lindsay and noticed that in the time she had been gone she’d also taken the time to change out of her skirt and into jeans and a shirt with a cat on it.

Lindsay took pity on her and didn’t say anything else about it, she did make herself home in Meg’s kitchen though. “Where is all of your food? Please tell me you don’t live on takeout.” Meg didn’t respond because she did live on takeout for the most part, she was only feeding one person and with her work schedule, it was really just easier to do it that way than to deal with all of the leftover food. She didn’t need to justify her eating habits to a stranger, a stranger who had been planning on killing her just a few hours ago. “I’m making tea and then I guess we’ll order a pizza.” Meg made a noise so that Lindsay would know she had heard her as she tried to ignore how strangely domestic this felt, having someone rummaging around in her kitchen cabinets and humming under their breath. They had only known each other for a few hours and at least the first half hour of knowing each other had been Meg convinced that she was going to end up with her throat slit and bleeding in an alley while Lindsay skipped away again to collect a paycheck. Now Lindsay was making tea and getting ready to order food for them to share, food to share before they started to plan what they did about the guy who hired Lindsay to kill her.

A few minutes later Lindsay handed her a mug and then fell on the sofa across from her. “Pizza’s on its way, then we can plan what we’re going to do. Hate planning on an empty stomach.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Meg still uncertain about where she was at with Lindsay and she was sure Lindsay felt the same way about her. Finally Lindsay spoke up, “Do you need to call someone? It’s almost six and you left work in a panic, I’m sure someone is looking for you.”

The thought hadn’t even occurred to Meg, but she was supposed to be live in around twenty minutes and she had left work hours ago. She found her purse, feeling impressed that after the afternoon she’d had that she managed to bring it home with her. She dug her phone out of her bag and saw her screen was filled with missed calls and texts from the SourceFed crew. She walked back to her bedroom and shut the door behind her. Her phone was already ringing in her hand as she sat down on the end of her bed. “Meg,” a frantic sounding Phil said once she answered, “where the hell are you we go live in fifteen minutes?”

“This is my two weeks,” she blurted out.

“What, Meg, what happened we need you here? Is there something I can do or..?”

“There’s a tongue in a box on my desk and I’ve been threatened three times this week. There’s nothing you can do about it, I’m leaving. Trisha can cover for me tonight, she’s probably already camera ready.” Phil was silent and Meg gave him a second before she anxiously tried to fill the silence, “I really appreciate everything you guys have done for me, but I have to leave. I mean I don’t think anything is gonna happen to you guys but I can’t chance it.”

“When this blows over, do you think you’ll come back to SourceFed? I can have your job waiting for you.” Phil offered and Meg wondered if he had heard all that shit she’d just said about the tongue and stuff, or if he just thought she was crazy.

“When this all blows over it will probably be because I ended up dead, let Sam have my position if I make it out I’ll find somewhere to go.”

“You’ll make it out alive Meg,” Phil said with finality and surety that Meg wished she had, “if you want a place at SourceFed we’ll always take you or you can take that job with The Know that you were offered months ago.”

“Did I black out and forget I told you that?”

He laughed, “Burnie might own everything and everyone in the state, but he’s a good guy and he gave me a heads up before he tried to take one of my best reporters.”

“Allegedly,” she corrected.

“Allegedly,” he repeated, “you’ll be okay Meg. Call when this is all over, I’ll take you back or I’ll give you a good recommendation.”

“Thanks Phil,” Meg said, and at some point she had started to cry, her cheeks felt wet and her voice was shaky.

“Any time, I’ve got to let Trisha know she’s going on. Take care of yourself.”

He hung up and Meg took a second to compose herself before she left the room. Lindsay glanced up at her and smiled, Meg appreciated that she didn’t comment on the fact that Meg had been crying. “Pizza’s here, didn’t know what you’d want so I thought cheese would be safe.”

“Great, I’m starved.”

They ate without talking about what had just happened to her, Meg appreciated that Lindsay didn’t feel like she needed to ask if she was okay. She totally wasn’t okay, but she didn’t want all of the shit that had happened over the past week brought up again, not after just having told it to Phil. Lindsay didn’t let them eat in silence though, and while she didn’t really like small talk most of the time it wasn’t that bad as she was talking to Lindsay.

“So what’s the plan then,” Meg asked when the box was empty and their plates were sitting in front of them. She figured that they would need to talk about this sooner rather than later, even if she would have rather continued the conversation they’d been having about their favorite anime.

“We’ll need to find a way to get close to him, and then push him out of power somehow and give it to someone else. I think the Fake AH Crew would love to move in on his business if they’re given the chance.”

“You want to get the Fake AH Crew involved,” Meg asked and that had to be even more terrifying than facing the Corpirate who actually wanted her dead.

Lindsay noticed her apprehension, “We’ll see what happens, it doesn’t matter if we bring them in or not I guess, once they hear he’s gone down they’ll take over.”

“So we won’t have to work with them?” Meg asked wanting to hear it actually come from Lindsay’s mouth.

“I wouldn’t say won’t,” she said refusing to look Meg in the eye, “but we probably won’t have to meet with all of them right away.”

“How do we get close to the Corpirate without him knowing what we’re doing?” Meg asked, she was beginning to get the feeling that this was going to be a much bigger and harder task than she had originally thought.

“We’re definitely going to need help,” Lindsay said considering just what their next move should be. “You got close to the Corpirate once, but I don’t think you’ll be able to do it again. Not that I don’t believe in you, but they’ll be on the lookout for you.”

“What about you?” Meg asked not bothering to keep the snap out of her voice, wondering at what point she was going to hear what Lindsay was doing in this plan.

“I can do a lot of things, but espionage is hard. We’ll need someone else to help out, someone that can help us get in but doesn’t have a face that will be immediately recognized.”

“Yeah and people like that are so easy to find. I’m sure you have a whole list of people you can just call up. Hi we’re going to take down the leader of a notorious drug ring, normal weekday stuff you know, shouldn’t take too long if you just wanna lend a helping hand.”

Lindsay smiled but there was a dark edge to it. It reminded Meg that it might not be in her best interests to smart off. After all, it was what had gotten her into the situation in the first place. “I’m gonna let you have that one because you’ve had a stressful week, and I’m a fantastic person. There’s a long list of people who would be more than happy to take over, _once_ the hard work is done, because that’s how things work in this business.”

“What are we going to do then?” Meg asked starting to feel like they were setting themselves up to fail. She had only found her man on the inside of the Corpirate’s organization as part of a happy accident. She had felt responsible when she’d seen him dead but a rational part of her brain kept telling her that it would have happened at some point anyway. She’d only found the guy because he had gotten stupid drunk and had been bragging about working with the Corpirate in some bar, it was sloppy and even without selling out to Meg he probably would have just sold out to the next person who was willing to pay. That helped to alieve some of her guilt but she still felt like if she wasn’t responsible for this guy’s death then she would be for Lindsay’s and her own, when they went after the Corpirate with no plan and no skills.

“You’re freaking out, I can tell,” Lindsay said, “don’t, we’ll be fine.”

Meg gave her what she hoped was a withering look, but even as she was giving it, it felt pathetic. “We’ll probably be fine,” Lindsay corrected and that did not fill Meg with much confidence.

“Probably is not the same as will.” Meg pointed out and it was starting to occur to her that even with as much as they were talking about all of this they hadn’t come up with a real plan. Sure, they knew they need to get close to him but that wasn’t much of a plan when all was said and done. Once they got there the details got even fuzzier, there wasn’t much of a plan past get there and make him go away.

“No, it’s not,” Lindsay admitted, “but it’s fine, I believe in the power of positive thinking and it hasn’t steered me wrong before.”

“Does positive thinking keep people from kidnapping you and removing your head?” Meg asked unable to keep herself from picturing her own head in a box on someone’s coffee table.

“Well I still have my head, so leaning toward yes,” Lindsay pointed out. “Let’s take a step away from this for a second, I have a friend in Los Santos who owes me a few favors and we can meet with him tomorrow. I’ll call him up tonight, but in the meantime, you go to bed. I’ll take the couch and take watch.”

“Take watch?” she asked.

“Yeah like watch out for the house and stuff.”

“I know what it means. I meant why do you need to?”

“On the off chance that someone tries to break in again,” Lindsay said, though it was phrased more like a question.

“Do you actually think that’s going to be an issue?” Meg asked, she wasn’t sure if she was going to be able to sleep tonight if she was thinking that someone was going to break in.

“Probably not,” Lindsay admitted, “but it’s an old habit.”

“You can’t stay up all night,” Meg pointed out realizing that Lindsay taking watch would mean just that.

“Are you going to stay up then?” Lindsay asked and Meg didn’t appreciate the skeptical tone that she had.

“You shouldn’t stay up all night, we can take shifts or something.” Meg insisted, not wanting to be totally useless when taking watch is something she could do.

Lindsay looked her up and down and Meg hadn’t felt so judged since the last time she tried to pick up someone at the bar down the street. “Alright, it’s only ten and it’ll take at least an hour or two to convince my friend to meet up with us, he’s kind of an asshole. So you go to bed and I’ll wake you up for your watch around four, we’ll leave for Los Santos around eight.”

Meg started to complain. There was no way she was going to let Lindsay stay up all night and then get back up four hours later, but the look Lindsay gave her when she opened her mouth to protest was eerily similar to the one her mom used to give her when she tried to stay up past her bed time. “See you at four.”

“Sweet dreams,” Lindsay called out with sarcastic sweetness as Meg reached her door.

Meg fell asleep faster than she expected, maybe it had something to do with knowing she had someone in the other room watching out for her. She fell asleep thinking about going to Los Santos tomorrow, in the time Meg had been living in the state she had only been in the city once, the SourceFed office and her apartment were both on the edge of the next town over, practically straddling the border between the two. The crime from Los Santos spilled over into their area; but at least when she was walking down the street here she only had to worry about getting mugged and not about getting shived.

She was drifting off when she started to think about just who Lindsay could have called, she said her friend was a he and if he was willing to help them then he had to be a criminal. Which wasn’t that surprising, there weren’t that many women who were in the criminal underworld. There was the rest of the RWBY gang, Jinx who might be retired, and a couple of thieves and hackers. The rest was male, for the most part, a few gangs had a female member or two. She knew a lot about the criminal world of Los Santos, but she couldn’t imagine who would owe Lindsay a big enough favor where they would be willing to help them deal with the Corpirate.


	3. Chapter 3

Meg Turney was possibly the most stubborn person that Lindsay had ever met, and that was saying something since Lindsay only hung out with criminals and making a living breaking the law was the ultimate act of stubbornness.

She’d woken Meg up at four like she had said she would, and Meg had sleepily stared her down until she’d finally gone back to crash in Meg’s bed for the few hours they had before they went back to Los Santos. She did appreciate the few hours of sleep that she got, not that she would admit it to Meg. Lindsay had gotten used to only grabbing a few hours of sleep here and there, that was just part of the job when you had to stalk someone to find an opening to kill them you usually had to spend a lot of time awake watching them. It was nice to get that little bit of sleep, she hadn't and wouldn't tell Meg that she really hadn't slept in the last twenty-four hours from where she'd been surveying Meg for her hit, forty-eight hours if you didn't count her cat nap she took when Meg had gone to bed the night before. It felt even nicer when she woke up and found that Meg had made breakfast for the two of them. She was sure that today was going to be as pleasant as it could be when they were starting their plan to knock off a sizable player in the criminal underworld. She’d been sure, that is, until they actually tried to leave Meg’s apartment.

Lindsay had just thrown the bag Meg had packed into the back of her car, they weren’t sure how long they would be gone but Lindsay had told Meg when she’d gotten out of bed that she wouldn’t be coming back to her apartment until after this was all over. Lindsay was already in the driver’s seat when the argument started. The car was started ready to go and Meg had yet to get in, “Turney, come on we don’t have all day.”

“I’m taking my own car,” Meg said and Lindsay knew that this was could be a huge argument if she didn't cut it off instantly.

“No, you aren’t now get in the car.” Lindsay was starting to feel bad about it, but using fear up to this point had been really successful in getting Meg to drop any arguments before they started. Lindsay was willing to ignore the guilty feeling she kept getting when she saw the panicky look in Meg’s eyes as she remembered the reason that she had met Lindsay in the first place in favor of remembering just what she was doing for Meg.

“I’m taking my car,” Meg repeated and it seemed like fear wasn’t going to work this time, and maybe that was good, maybe she should start actually talking to Meg instead of scaring her into listening. Lindsay turned the car off and got out of the car so she could actually look at Meg when they were arguing.

“If you take your car then they’ll know you left, if you leave it here it’ll be at least a few more hours before they notice you’re gone.”

“I’m supposed to be at work today, if I take my car it’ll just look like I went to work like normal.”

Lindsay hated it, but she had a point and a pretty good one too and it wouldn't be the worst idea to have one more car with them. “Fine, you can take your car, but I’m checking it out before we go. I don’t need you blowing yourself up before we can even get out of the parking lot.”

Meg looked annoyed and then genuinely shocked as she watched Lindsay drop to the ground beside her car and roll underneath it. “What are you doing?” Meg asked in a hushed whisper crouching down beside her car to speak to Lindsay, she could see her head swiveling around like she was embarrassed that someone might see.

“I’m checking your car for explosives, someone broke into your apartment yesterday it’s not too far a jump to think that someone might have planted something on your car.” Lindsay said, there was nothing on the bottom of the car so she rolled out from under the car and moved to the door, “Take a step back,” she ordered it wasn’t likely that there would be anything attached to the door that she wouldn’t be able to see from underneath the car, better safe than sorry. She pulled open the car door and flinched away from it, nothing happened like she expected, but sometimes the rational part of her brain didn’t always get heard when the rest of her was worried about explosives. She leaned down and popped the hood of the car and while she was down there she checked under the seat for anything that could be triggered by weight, more nothing. She was starting to feel a little crazy, her paranoia was not usually this unfounded. She didn’t know much about the inside of cars, just enough to make sure hers kept running and, more importantly, enough to notice when there was something there that shouldn’t be there.

Meg came over to where Lindsay had her head under the hood, “Do you actually think you’re going to find something in there?”

“No,” Lindsay answered honestly, “but I’m a little paranoid.” As she was saying that she caught sight of something she was unfamiliar with, “What’s that?”

She didn’t think she sounded nervous, but then she also hadn’t thought there would actually be anything in Meg’s car, so maybe she deserved the giggle that bubbled out of Meg, “It’s the thing that makes the remote start in my car work. So I can press this button in my warm house and then my car will be warm too when I go outside and it’s cold out.”

“This is California, it doesn’t get that cold out.” Lindsay pointed out.

“It snowed this year,” Meg cried out, like Lindsay had personally offended her.

“It snows in lots of places, and it wasn’t even cold enough to stick to the ground.”

“Didn’t you say we were going to be late?” Meg asked and Lindsay smirked knowing that it meant she had won this stupid argument they were having, a small victory after losing the argument about her car.

“We are, and now we’ll have to stop by my apartment first to get rid of one of the cars.” Lindsay climbed into her own vehicle, parked next Meg’s. She leaned out her window and called out with a smirk, “Try to keep up.”

Meg had taken her challenge to heart and the girl’s car had ridden her bumper the entire way to Lindsay’s apartment. “What was that about keeping up?” Meg asked with a smirk and Lindsay had a brief and irrational urge to kiss it off of her. An urge she shouldn’t have since she’d only known the woman for a handful of hours, she was just going to say that it was because of how long it had been since she had spent this long with one person.

“Just get inside,” Lindsay said instead, rolling her eyes and shaking her head in a way she didn’t want to call fond, trying to shake off the strange feeling she was having. Not like Meg wasn’t very attractive, she was gorgeous with delicate features, bright red hair, and the black frames she had on made her eyes look even bigger. Meg was pretty and Lindsay hadn’t done much but work for the last few months, so it was easy to understand why she was feeling this way so suddenly. She shook off the feeling, or tried to, as she grabbed Meg’s bag, as well as her own, out of the trunk of her car, Meg hadn’t bothered to move it to her own after winning the driving argument and hadn’t bothered to carry it inside with her as she left the garage and went into Lindsay’s house.

“You have a nice place,” Meg called out. While Lindsay had been wondering why she thought Meg was pretty, the person in question had wandered into her apartment and started looking around.

“Careful you might find something you don’t want to see,” Lindsay called as she walked through the door, she heard a thud which meant something had probably been dropped and broken but the way she came sulking back into the living room with a blush still on her cheeks made it worth it.

Meg noticed the bag in Lindsay’s hand and her cheeks got pink again, “Sorry, you didn’t have to carry that it.”

Lindsay shrugged it off, honestly if it had been anyone else she probably wouldn’t have. “Whatever, I had to grab mine anyway.”

Meg smiled appreciatively and took her bag from Lindsay’s hands, “So, what next?”

“We’re actually early,” Lindsay admitted, “so we can set up a little bit here before we go meet my friend. The spare bedroom is in the back, you can put your stuff in there if you want.”

Meg wandered back toward the room Lindsay had pointed to. Lindsay sighed when she’d finally left the room, and slumped down onto her couch. She didn’t do a lot of work in a team, killing people tended to be more of a solo job, and she wasn’t sure what all went into planning for a major hit like this and she was starting to feel like she was out of her depth.

She figured that she should probably set up a base camp or something in her house, but other than digging out her computer so that they can start trying to figure out how they were going to get into the Corpirate’s inner circle, she wasn't sure where to start. She ran back to her room and grabbed her computer, moving it into the living room so it was there when they got back, since it was the only thing she was sure needed to be done she figured it would be smart to do it.

She really was trying to figure out what else there was to do, when she did work with a team things always seemed much more put together than she currently felt. She reminded herself that generally she worked with crews that were well established, the Fake AH Crew and the other RWBY girls, and the biggest thing that all of the teams she had worked with is that none of them had involved her being in charge. A text came through and saved her from having to worry about doing anything else.

**Hey dickhead, meet me at that coffee place by Geoff’s with that friend you want me to help.**

Lindsay didn’t bother to respond.

She’d called Michael to help them out, but she hadn’t bothered to tell him just who he was helping. She knew when she called him that he would agree to at least try to help her out, she was his best and only friend outside of the crew after all.

Meg came back out of the guest room and sat down next to Lindsay like Michael’s text was her cue to reenter, “So who is this friend of yours,” she asked and Lindsay remembered that she hadn’t ever actually told her who they were meeting.

She didn’t know if she should tell Meg, now that she was thinking about it. Lindsay had only know the woman for around twenty-four hours and they had made huge strides in the whole trusting each other department; but then she was also getting ready to take her to meet Michael ‘Mogar’ Jones.

Michael was a great guy and the Mogar persona was just that, a persona, but that’s what people know him for. He was the explosives guy for the Fake AH Crew, with a quick temper and the only person who had a hit count that could come anywhere near the Vagabond’s. That was all Mogar though, Michael was different. He was a huge nerd, with that leather jacket he always wore that covered up videogame themed tattoos. Michael would game with her when they both had a weekend free, he was still super quick to get pissed off about small shit something that wasn’t all part of his Mogar personality; but he usually got over it quickly, or he did most of the time. Which is why she had yet to tell him who she was bringing with her.

She decided that it was probably best if neither of them knew about the other, because she was sure that it would be a good idea. She definitely couldn’t find any potential flaws in that plan. She definitely couldn’t already hear Michael raging about not being kept in the loop and showing up with a reporter. She didn’t know Meg as well as she did Michael, but she thought that once Meg realized who they were meeting with she would probably get as quiet and nervous as she had when she first met Lindsay.

“They’d rather introduce themselves,” Lindsay said settling herself to start down this road, she was optimistic enough, or maybe just naïve enough, to think that no one would get too mad about basically being lied to.

Meg looked at her skeptically but didn’t ask about just who they were meeting again, something Lindsay was thankful for because if Meg had asked again she was certain that she would have told her. The almost blind trust that Meg was putting in her was making her feel just a little guilty about her deception.

“Fine, as long as we’re meeting your mystery friend in public."

–

Meg should have gone into law instead of journalism, she was now the winner of two car related arguments with a renowned assassin and it was rightly going to her head. Not only were they taking her car to the café where they were meeting Lindsay’s special friend, and Meg didn’t like the weird feeling she got in her chest when she thought about all the things special could mean, but she also won the fight about who got to drive.

She didn’t dance in her seat when she thought about it, but it was nearly a thing. Meg would take the small victory, even if she only got it because she could tell for some reason Lindsay didn’t feel like fighting her this time.

Sometimes her brain would remind her that almost a day ago Lindsay had been promised money to kill her, like this morning when she was making breakfast and Lindsay was asleep and she thought about just walking out her front door and never coming back. Or right now when she was thinking about how easily Lindsay’d given up the fight when it came to driving, but otherwise she was getting used to her company.

They had spent a little time talking while they’d been eating the night before and it seemed like the actually had a lot in common, like a love for fluffy creatures and vintage Nintendo games, two topics they talked about while Lindsay gave her directions into the heart of the city.

“Take a left here,” Lindsay said, and Meg smiled because she knew Lindsay was still a little cranky about being stuck in the passenger seat even if she was trying to act like she didn't really care, she could hear it in her voice. Which is fine, Lindsay could pout, cause Meg was still feeling a little salty about almost having her fingers broken after she’d slapped Lindsay’s hand away from her radio. Meg refused to say that she was anyway at fault for her hurting fingers, it was her damn car for fucks sake, maybe she shouldn’t smack people who earn a living through killing people but maybe those same people should respect the universal rules of driving. The driver picks the music and shotgun definitely doesn’t try to break any bones when the driver enforces that rule.

“Take this right, and we can park and walk over to this place.” Lindsay instructed.

Meg did as she was told, impressing herself by using her somewhat rusty parallel parking skills as she slipped into a spot across from a small restaurant. “We should have just met here,” Lindsay said, rolling her eyes, “that way we could have actually had lunch.”

“So where are we going,” Meg asked certain that Lindsay had said they were meeting her friend at a café.

“There’s some coffee place down the road, just be glad we aren’t meeting in a parking garage, the asshole likes to think he’s a spy.”

Meg nodded and decided she would just trail behind Lindsay, who seemed to know where she was going. The more she heard about this guy she was getting ready to meet the more nervous she felt, she wasn’t sure if Lindsay’s friend would like her and the more she talked about him the more worried she was that he wouldn’t want to help them. Lindsay hadn't actually come out and said it yet, but Meg was pretty certain that any plan Lindsay had wouldn't work without this guy they were coming to meet.

They came up to a small building and Meg could faintly smell the coffee around her. She glanced around at the outdoor seating area that was attached to the café, and she looked to see who would react to Lindsay walking up. The only table that had someone sitting by himself was occupied by a young looking guy with reddish curls that made him look even younger. He was wrapped in a brown leather jacket and leaning back in his chair, looking like he didn’t give two shits about being there at all.

Meg saw the moment he locked eyes with Lindsay, his entire face lit up and Meg thought she caught sight of a dimple. She was starting to think that when Lindsay said her friend would be helping them that she might have meant boyfriend, she scolded herself for feeling upset by that. She couldn’t get upset because a girl she thought was pretty, a girl she barely knew, probably had a boyfriend. It’s not like she seriously thought they would do anything after this, assuming everything worked out in the end, she and Lindsay would go their separate ways, it’s not like she could honestly ask someone who had been sent to kill her if she wanted to get drinks sometime.

“About time you got here, Tuggey,” the guy said, allowing her to pull him into a hug. “Where’s this friend you,” he locked eyes with Meg over Lindsay’s shoulder. He pulled away from Lindsay and pointed an accusing finger in Meg’s direction, “What the fuck, a fucking reporter are you serious?”

“Just chill out dude, it’s fine. We need your help.” Lindsay said, and while she was making a request, her tone didn’t make it sound like she was asking.

“I’m not helping a fucking reporter,” the way he spit the word made it sound like a slur.

“Yeah, you are. You owe me one.”

“I don’t owe you shit, Lindsay.”

Meg watched their back and forth in stunned silence. She knew that not everyone was going to like her, she was in this mess because of that reason, but she had no clue why this guy she'd just met, hadn’t even officially met really, was so violently against helping her. Especially since Lindsay had been so sure he would, up until a few seconds ago.

“Then I’ll owe you one,” Lindsay said and Meg was sure that had to be a bigger deal than it sounded. Her idea of owing someone a favor meant picking up an extra cup of coffee on her way into work, but an assassin owing you one that was a big deal and she had the feeling it wasn’t something that was handed out all the time.

The guy paused and he looked between Meg and Lindsay like he was trying to figure out if she was tricking him. “No, fuck what am I doing, I don’t need a reporter knowing what my face looks like. A warning woulda been nice before you dragged me out here.”

“Simmer down Rage Quit, she doesn’t even know who you are, you skipped over introductions and went straight to flipping your shit.”

He rolled his eyes hiding what she thought was embarrassment behind annoyance, “Whatever, hate that stupid nickname.” He flopped down in his seat and Meg realized that, not only had they been standing up yelling at each other this whole time but they’d caused a big enough scene that everyone sitting outside was pretending they weren’t listening.

Lindsay sat down across from him and smiled in a way that made it clear she knew she had won, “Tell that to my broken Xbox controller.” She patted the chair next to her and Meg sat down quickly, a little afraid that another argument would break out. “Let’s try again, this is Meg Turney. Now you say?”

He smirked at Lindsay from his seat across the table before turning to Meg with a pleased look on his face. “What the fuck do you want, Meg?”

“Meg, this dickhead is Michael.” She glared at him, “Look, it’s almost like she doesn’t know who you are, your super-secret identity is still safe.”

“Fuck off. What do you need help with, cause I won’t be your anonymous source.”

“No one’s asking you to be.” Lindsay said and Meg had the feeling this was going to go nowhere fast.

“We’re going after the Corpirate,” Meg said, trying to cut to the chase and surprised her voice sounded as strong as it did.

“I don’t give a shit,” Michael started to say, but his jaw clicked shut after he finished processing just what Meg had said. “You’re doing what?”

“Interested now,” Lindsay said.

“What the hell did you do?” Michael asked and Meg didn’t know which of the two of them he was talking to.

Lindsay answered either way, “That’s not important.”

“Not important! Fuck Linds, I can’t go after this guy for no reason, you know that.” Michael said, looking at her with wide, desperate eyes.

“Don’t you trust me?” Lindsay asked and her batted eyes were like weapons, Meg was sure she could see Michael’s resolve breaking as she watched.

“Come on Linds, put those away. You know I can’t help unless you give me an amazing fucking reason.”

“What’s the problem?” Meg couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Are you not- Do you not do the same thing Lindsay does?”

Michael and Lindsay both turned to look at her and then at each other before laughing a lot harder than she thought was necessary for what she had said, “Like he could do what I do,” Lindsay said through her laughter, wiping her eyes as she tried to get ahold of herself.

Michael scoffed, “Please, killing people is easy, what I do is art.”

“What _do_ you do?” Meg asked.

“Demolition,” Michael answered with barely a second’s hesitation.

Lindsay hit him and Meg winced in sympathy, Lindsay was surprisingly strong. “Don’t be a smartass, seriously you can trust her.” Michael looked at Meg the same way she had seen people look at gum on the bottom of their shoe. No, more like Lindsay had asked him to explain calculus to a drooling toddler. “If you don’t I will.”

Michael stayed silent, and Meg hadn’t known Lindsay as long as she was sure Michael had known her, but even she knew that trying to out stubborn Lindsay wouldn’t work unless you had something to fight her with. “Michael is,” she started to proclaim and the people who had been straining to listen without actually looking like they were listening were now blatantly staring at their table.

“Fucking Christ,” Michael said in a hushed voice nearly lunging across the table at her so that she'd be quiet, “Mogar, fuck I’m Mogar. Do you want everyone to know? Fuck, it’s like you want me arrested.” He said it in a harsh whisper before he turned and glared at everyone staring at them, “Yeah I’m the father, it’s a real Maury moment, stare a little harder fuckers.”

Meg felt all the blood rush from her face, weird since it felt like her heart was actually going to explode with as fast as it was beating. Mogar, one fifth of the Fake AH Crew whose chosen solution to obstacles the crew faced was always a healthy dose of C4. Mogar, who had been seen on more than one occasion shooting drug dealers who had gotten too mouthy while in crew territory. Mogar, who had put a sticky bomb on the bottom of a stolen car and blown it up between two other stolen vehicles just last week; and, as far as she could tell, he’d done it just because he wanted to see what would happen, it had been a slow news day admittedly when she'd been looking into that story. Mogar, who was really named Michael, who was sitting across from her at some no name coffee shop watching her freak out with an amused expression on his face, “I think I broke her.”

Lindsay glanced over at her and waved off his concerns, “She’ll be fine, at least she will if you agree to help us.”

“Linds, you know I wanna help, but I gotta have a good reason.”

“Why? Do you have to ask the Kingpin for time off?” Meg asked, only partially serious, but her knowledge of how a crew worked on the inside extended to what she'd learned from the Fast and Furious movies.

It was a question that she thought was perfectly valid, it _wasn’t_ apparently,at least not if the way Michael was so valiantly trying to keep from laughing in her face again was any indicator. “I’m not laughing at you,” he said, something she didn’t believe since he was totally laughing at her, “I’ve just never actually heard someone call him that with such a serious look on their face.” A face he the continued to laugh in.

“You do though,” Lindsay pointed out with a smirk curing at her lips, “that hero crush of yours means you won’t go unless the boss man gives his okay.”

“I can’t just go after this guy, he’s pretty small shit but you’d have to be an idiot not to think that this could start a major turf war.”

“You just don’t want Geoff to be mad at you.” she teased.

“Last time Ryan went off the rails like that he was on bitch duty for a month,” Michael admitted, “but you can’t just go around killing people without a good reason.”

Meg was pleasantly surprised by that outlook that Michael had on things, she didn’t think they were trying to kill the Corpirate even if he was trying to kill Meg or she didn’t think that until Lindsay started laughing. “But seriously though, what’s your problem with this?”

Michael glanced around at the tables next to them, most of the people who’d been listening had been scared off by Michael’s abrasive attitude but it was clear that he didn’t want to risk anyone else possibly listening. “The crew is about a person short,” he said in a quiet voice that Meg hadn’t heard until this point, she was a little amazed he knew what a whisper really was. “Even with all five of us, we really need a sixth to help pick up the slack and it’s starting to look super fucking obvious. You didn’t hear this from me, _and_ ,” he stared directly at Meg for a second before continuing, “this is off the fucking record or whatever.”

“Just get to the point,” Lindsay said, “she’s not working for DeFranco anymore.”

“Once a reporter,” he said, like it was something people actually said, “but Felix has been looking for an excuse to get some more weight to throw around and if it gets around that we were starting shit with the Corpirate for no good reason then he’s gonna take the opportunity to help push us out while we're weak. So I’m gonna need a good fucking reason to go after him so Geoff can use it when someone tries to pick a fight.”

Meg was trying to piece things together the best she could. It was common knowledge that the Fake AH Crew was a five member crew and Lindsay clearly knew them all pretty well. Michael was throwing names of crew members out like that would give them some idea why this was important and it probably was helpful for Lindsay who knew these people; but Meg wasn’t sure she knew which crew members he was talking about. Michael was Mogar _that_ she knew for sure, and she assumed that Geoff was the Kingpin based on the way they talked about him, which meant that the Ryan they had mentioned had to be either the Vagabond, the Beard, or the Brownman and she was pretty sure he wasn’t the second two. She didn't know who Felix was, which had her thinking it wasn't a code name, or it was someone who hadn't made a big enough show to draw the media's attention, so hearing his name didn't give her much to help piece together the story Michael was barely telling. She'd compared the Los Santos underworld to a soap opera more than once and it was starting to feel like she'd missed a few episodes.

Lindsay sat there quietly for a minute, which was all the answer Michael needed, “Is this cause he didn’t pay you last time? Cause that’s something you should’ve brought up to Burnie, you know he’s the one who takes care of all that shit. I can’t just drop everything for some revenge plot. We have a heist next month.”

“He tried to kill me!” Meg said much louder than she had meant to, stunned that with as many times as Lindsay had asked for his help he was still refusing.

“Well,” Lindsay corrected, “he threatened you and then hired me to do it.”

Michael looked at Lindsay skeptically, “You actually took a job from the Corpirate after last time, and you didn’t kill her?”

“I didn’t know it was him, I was given a name and the promise of a lot of cash.”

“So again, why is she still alive? Perfect kill streak, my ass.”

“Still counts if I decided I didn’t want to kill her.” Lindsay said and Meg could feel the tension that came from this being the start of a much older argument. “You know how it goes, the begging.” She shrugged like that was a step in the assassination process everyone knew about.

“The only begging I know about is much sexier than the begging you get.” Michael said with a smirk on his face and half lidded eyes as he leaned across the table and looked at Lindsay.

“But seriously,” Lindsay said rolling her eyes at Michael’s antics, it was sort of a shame because Meg didn’t entirely mind the look when it was on Michael’s face, even if he was being an ass about helping her.

Michael fell back into his chair, “But seriously, yeah I know what you’re talking about. Don’t have the patience to deal with it, but I know what you’re talking about.”

“Right, and you know it’s pretty much always the same, but Turney here decided to name drop instead.”

Michael turned his attention fully to Meg for the first time since he’d thrown a fit at her being there. “So what’d ya do, to piss this guy off?”

“Opened my big mouth, and got a tongue put on my desk and a head put on my coffee table.” Meg was impressed with how blasé she managed to sound about the whole thing, the distancing was probably not healthy she was sure and she should probably think about seeing a therapist once all of this was over.

Michael sent her a surprised look, she would even go so far as to say it might border impressed, “All right then, Turney, Tuggey,” he said addressing the two of them in turn, “I’ll help you.”

Meg felt ecstatic, things had to go smoothly if they had a member of the Fake AH Crew on their side, this would hopefully all be over soon. She thought about how this all could have gone, she really should have been dead, Ruby Rose had been sent after her for fuck’s sake; but then Lindsay decided she wanted to help her. Now they had Michael who had agreed to work with them, and things would be over so much faster than when it was just the two of them.

“But,” Lindsay prompted.

“Not sure about pegging, but you know for you I’d try,” he winked at her. Lindsay kicked the leg of his chair, smiling as she did so, and he laughed even as he flailed back with his chair, “Fine, _but_ I have to call in first. The Crew doesn’t exactly give out sick days.”

“And you need to ask Geoff’s permission, I know,” Lindsay said.

Meg could feel them getting ready to start arguing with Lindsay again, and maybe if they weren’t just delaying when she could finally be finished with all of this she might find their bickering endearing. “Can you just call him, or whatever it is you need to do, please.” Meg said, well maybe she snapped a little bit.

Eventually she would learn not to yell at dangerous criminals or to smack their hands away from the radio when they want to change the station. She was a slow learner apparently, but Michael didn’t seem to mind that much. He waved his phone for the table to see before he pressed a few buttons and put it to his ear, “Hey Geoff, ‘s me I gotta call a meeting.” He paused and Meg really wished she could hear the other side of the conversation, “I wouldn’t call if it wasn’t fucking important, Geoff.” Michael looked like he was going to continue but he shut up quickly when whoever was on the other line started talking again. Michael started to look more and more sheepish, “Sorry, no don’t call in Ray or Jack.”

Meg turned to Lindsay to see if those names had her reacting in a certain way, so Meg knew how she should react. Lindsay wasn’t even paying attention, she was playing some game on her own phone but when she felt Meg’s eyes on her she turned and smiled at her. It was more reassuring than it had any right to be, an involuntary uptick of facial muscles should not have her relieved about their next steps in the mission, but it did.

“Look Geoff it’s just gonna be me,” he paused and Meg got her hopes up thinking that she wouldn’t have to meet with any other dangerous people until it came time to get rid of the Corpirate. But Michael only paused for a second, not long enough for the person on the other end to speak, “and Lindsay,” another second long pause, “and Lindsay’s reporter friend.”

Meg could hear the yelling coming through the other end of the phone, it wasn’t clear enough for her to make out the words being said but it sounded angry. “Lindsay vouched for her,” Michael said over the yelling in his phone, “so I trust her.” The yelling stopped abruptly and Meg found herself missing it just a little bit, the yelling was keeping her from having to actually go into the Fake AH Crew's lair. “Already leaving,” Michael promised, “we can be there in five.”

Michael hung up and Meg started to reach for her keys, he reached across the table to stop her, “I drive.”

She didn't try to argue.


	4. Chapter 4

Meg was stuck in a cycle of near perpetual terror.

First, there was the whole head on her table thing, which would have freaked out anyone. Anyone normal anyway, she thought, as she remembered how calmly Lindsay had handled the whole thing.  Sure, someone had to be the level headed one, but Lindsay didn't have to be so good at being the levelheaded one when there was a corpse nearby.

Then, there was meeting Michael Jones, who was really Mogar. Or maybe it would be better if she said she met Mogar who was really Michael Jones. Either way it was two sides of the same coin, and he was known to have a nasty temper, but after their rough first introduction she had hope that they could at least be friendly with one another.

She had hope until she got into a car with him, that is. She cringed in her seat, covering her eyes, and then uncovering them again because if she was going to die she wanted to see it coming. “Wrong side of the road, Michael this is the wrong side of the road,” she was practically screeching, gripping the backs of Lindsay and Michael’s seats.

Lindsay looked up from her phone, not at all bothered by the life or death situation that Michael was putting them in. "There's a cop around the corner," was her helpful, and only, addition to the situation.

Michael moved back into the correct lane and slowed down so he was within twenty miles of the actual speed limit. "Actual cops or Adam and Joel?"

"This close to the penthouse it could be either," Lindsay said with a shrug as she glanced back to whatever on her phone had her so distracted, "wouldn't chance it." Meg was willing to bet that Lindsay wouldn't have brought it up if she didn't know exactly who was nearby. She appreciated that Lindsay tried to get Michael's driving back in the realm of normal because she knew that if that was what Lindsay had done, she did it for Meg since no one else seemed bothered at all the traffic laws being broken.

"Speaking of which," Michael pulled the emergency brake and made a hard right sending the car into a spin she’d never seen done outside of the movies. Meg couldn’t do anything but let her jaw hang open as they came to a stop parallel to the curb, rocking as the tires on the right side hit the curb and the left side left the road entirely, and then came falling back down to the ground. “We’re here,” Michael said with a shit eating grin.

Lindsay didn’t seem that impressed, and Meg was much more focused on keeping her breakfast in her stomach where it belonged. She was used to the motion sickness being a problem when she was playing videogames, that skyhook in BioShock Infinite had almost killed her, but it wasn’t usually a problem when she was in someone’s car.

“You didn’t curb it this time,” Lindsay said approvingly.

“Ryan helped me with the timing,” Michael said checking it out for himself.

“Nerd.”

Michael smiled, “Yeah, don’t know why anyone thinks he’s scary.”

Meg’s stomach had just settled down after her adventurous car ride with Michael, when it tied itself back up in knots as she remembered the most recent reason she was worried about her own life. She was sitting outside of the headquarters of the deadliest crew in North America and she was going to have to get out of the car and sit down with them.

She knew that the little comments they kept making about the crew were designed to make her feel better. The whole way there they had been dropping little factoids about the crew members that were supposed to make them seem less scary. It was great that Ryan liked to watch the same anime that Lindsay did, or whatever, but that didn't change the fact that he could, allegedly, disembowel a man in under a minute. She really didn't care that Geoff would agree to do anything if you got him drunk enough, the idea that Michael was the same way held a little more interest for her, but unless Geoff was going to be drunk during this meeting though the information held no value to her.

“Seriously though,” he said opening the car door for Meg as she slowly pried her fingers from Michael’s upholstery, “we’re gonna be late, don’t want Geoff pissed at me before we go ask for a favor.”

Michael walked ahead of them, calling the elevator while Meg did her best to hide behind Lindsay. “We’re just asking if we’re cool to go after the Corpirate, give Geoff a heads up so if anyone tries to start shit he has some warning. In and out.” It came out like he was warning them about something, Meg wasn’t sure who he was warning, her or Lindsay.

“So what is going to happen here, like exactly,” Meg whispered so that she hoped only Lindsay could hear.

The confined space of the elevator meant that even as a whisper Michael heard her. “We go in, we tell Geoff what’s happening, I'll ask for some time off, and then we leave, no biggie.” It was really just a repetition of what he had said before, but that meant the plan was simple. Simple plans meant there wasn’t a lot that could go wrong, not that she thought talking to Michael’s boss to get a few days off was something that could go especially wrong but the paranoia was starting to get to her.

“That’s it,” Meg asked hopefully. In and out, that’s something she could do, Michael was asking for time off that’s something that normal people do, in their normal jobs with their normal bosses.

“They know you’re coming and that you’re a reporter so you won’t have the freak out that Michael had,” Lindsay said.

“They’re going to try to freak you out,” Michael warned, and if Meg weren’t a little scared for her own life, she might think he looked a little anxious. “Just stay a normal level of freaked out, not too much, Ryan can smell fear,” Michael said with a wink and Meg appreciated his attempt at lightening the mood before they went up there, but even his attempt at a joke couldn’t quite hide the anxious look he had in his eyes.

The elevator dinged as they reached the top floor, Michael walked out first and Lindsay followed him out. They were half way down the hallway before Meg remembered that she would have to follow too, that and how to make her legs work so she could.

She jogged down the hallway to catch up with them and caught up just in time for Michael to bang loudly on the door before pushing it open a second later. Just like with the elevator, Michael walked in first and Lindsay followed half a second later, after wrapping a hand around Meg’s wrist and tugging her along. Not that Meg would have run, she’d definitely been thinking about it, but without Lindsay pulling on her wrist she’s sure she would have spent the time staring into the darkened room.

She watched Michael walk toward the middle of the room, clearly on autopilot as he moved to where he would normally sit, before looking around at where he was at and spinning so that he was standing behind a couch and facing a large armchair. “The fuck, dude? I said this wasn’t a big deal what’s with the set up?”

Meg assumed Michael was talking to Geoff but she was too freaked to look over at who was sitting in the wingback armchair as Lindsay was dragging her over to a very scary looking guy with very big arms and an emotionless grey skull mask. Lindsay was not affected by this guy at all, and was somehow dragging Meg’s dead weight along behind her as she walked up to the fucking Vagabond like he was some guy on the street.

She flicked him in the middle of his hard plastic forehead hard enough where the sound was audible, and Meg winced a little in sympathy at what it must have felt like. “Really Rye, you can’t wear that with company over, it’s rude.”

“Sit down, Tuggey,” Geoff ordered from the armchair.

Michael vaulted over the back of the couch and Lindsay punched Ryan once in the arm, it was friendly but Meg couldn’t help but flinch away a little bit as she waited for him to hit back, before following Michael’s lead and sitting down. Meg gave the guy a wide berth, even with Lindsay still dragging her along by her wrist, she’d heard about all of the things that the Vagabond had done to people who’d pissed him off. Lindsay flopped down on the couch next to Michael and Meg slowly sat down beside her, spine stiff as she sat on the edge of her seat, a dramatic contrast to the way the other two were lounging.

“Nice set up Dr. Evil, you want a cat to pet or are you just going to twirl your mustache,” Lindsay said and there was a teasing bite to her voice.

“And Ryan what’s with the guard dog shit, down boy.” Michael added.

“Could you dicks just shut the hell up,” Geoff asked, dropping the tough mobster act his voice cracking as he reprimanded the two of them.

“Sorry boss, you didn’t hire me ‘cause I would go along with all your shitty plans.” Michael said.

“No, but I can fire you, fucker.”

“Can’t fire me,” Lindsay pointed out smugly and Meg wondered just how you got to the point where you could be smug with one of the deadliest men in the state.

“Maybe not, but I don’t have to hire you ever again,” Geoff reminded.

Lindsay made a disbelieving sound, “Heard you need a sixth Ramsey, sure you have the room to start refusing help?”

Geoff had a face that seemed like he was perpetually tired or bored, he’d been staring at the three of them like they were just one more hassle in his already too busy schedule; but with Lindsay’s words his gaze hardened and Meg understood why people were so scared of him. She was a little worried that Geoff would order Ryan to shoot Lindsay on the spot.

“Lindsay,” Michael scolded, even with as flippant as he’d been acting toward Geoff and his attempt at authority he thought she’d crossed a line.

She was a little worried that Lindsay had talked her way out of Michael helping them, since Michael had made it clear that clear that he was out if they didn’t get Geoff’s approval. She was worried until she heard a deep chuckle coming from Ryan who was still lurking behind Geoff. He sighed the fight gone, as even the person who was literally on his side turned against him. He turned his attention from Michael and Lindsay, and over to Meg, “How’d you get mixed up with these two?”

“Geoff,” Michael started but he was cut off.

“I didn't ask you, Jones, I asked her.”

“I,” Meg began to say, clearing her throat in an attempt to make her voice sound a little stronger. “I pissed off the Corpirate and Lindsay tied to kill me.” Meg was getting a little sick of this story, it sounded more and more ridiculous every time she had to tell it and she was having to tell it a whole lot more than she fucking thought she would, and she was hoping that this was the last time. Especially when the response she got was an eyebrow quirk. “Meg Turney,” she introduced unable to remember if the two knew who she was.

“The Corpirate,” Geoff said and Meg was fairly confident that she was no longer the focus of his attention. Even when she wasn’t she still felt like she was under scrutiny with as skeptical as he sounded.

“It shouldn’t take more than a week, two tops,” Michael said.

“Are you asking permission?” Geoff asked, “That’s a first.”

“Saw what happened to Ryan last time.”

“You know I could just send Ryan, this would be over in hours,” Geoff pointed out and, yeah, having this done in hours would be amazing could she sign up for that option. She could go back to work and pretend like this never happened.

Her hopes were dashed very quickly by words she never expected to hear from the Vagabond. “I’m on a murder break.”

“Are you fucking kidding me, Haywood?” Geoff asked. Ryan just shrugged, like murder breaks were something that was a normal part of life. “How long is this one going to last?”

Ryan didn’t respond but she imagined that if you could see the look on his face it would be offended. Geoff sighed, she assumed he was thinking the same thing, and looked to Michael and Lindsay, “Two weeks?” Meg couldn’t believe that he’d given up on Ryan so quickly, maybe murder breaks were more common than she thought. As she looked at Ryan’s unmoving plastic face mask she thought that maybe Geoff just knew better than to fight with the man when he was set on just what he wanted to do.

“No more,” Michael promised.

“You’re going to need more than two guys and a reporter,” Ryan said.

“You could help us,” Lindsay said, “we need a tech guy, murder break would stay intact,” another sign that maybe this murder break thing was either common in their line of work or just a common quirk for Ryan.

Meg couldn’t decide if he was considering Lindsay’s offer or not, the hard plastic of the mask revealed nothing. “No, nope I’m not losing any more of my people to this,” Geoff sent a pointed look to Lindsay, “we’re shorthanded enough as is.”

“It’s two goddamn weeks! Come on!” Michael shouted.

“And we have a heist in four.” Geoff said in that universal I’m the boss here tone. “Tech guys aren’t difficult to find, call Burnie if you can’t manage to find one yourself.” It was a slight and a dismissal.

Michael looked like he wanted to argue again but Geoff stopped him, “I’m letting you go, don’t make me change my mind.” An even clearer dismissal.

Lindsay decided the meeting was over with that, ending things before one of them could talk their way out of Geoff’s generosity, “Thanks G-man, I’ll bring him back in one piece.”

Meg jumped up faster than she maybe should have if the soft laugh that Ryan made was any indicator. Michael stood up as well but made no move to head toward the door, “What no, not until one of these fucks points us toward a tech nerd.”

“I told you where to go,” Geoff said, “if you’re waiting for me to give in and let you take Ryan it isn’t going to happen.”

“I’ve got a guy anyway, Michael, so chill out.” Lindsay said.

Michael moved toward the door just a little more and Meg hoped that meant she could leave soon because even with Geoff and Ryan being mildly friendly you can’t defeat deeply ingrained fear and paranoia caused by working in the reporting business. “Get your ass in gear,” Lindsay ordered when Michael was still standing in the middle of the room. Michael said his goodbyes and moved the rest of the way out of the room, Meg followed behind him with a small wave to the two crew members she had just met. “See you later guys. Have fun with that murder break, Ryan.” Lindsay called.

“Who’s your techie,” Michael asked the second the door was pulled shut.

“It’s someone you know,” Lindsay answered and Meg wondered why she was being so cryptic about all of this if it was someone Michael knew. She was also refusing to look at him and she headed instead to the elevator, clearly certain that they would both follow.

He seemed to agree that the crypticness was weird or maybe he already had a clue about who she meant, “Who the hell is it, Linds.”

“I texted him while we were meeting with Geoff and Ryan, he’s going to meet us at that café by where we parked Meg’s car.”

“That’s not really an answer,” Meg pointed out.

Lindsay sent her a betrayed look as Michael grinned at her, and yeah that was definitely a dimple she’d noticed earlier and it was kind of adorable when paired with those freckles she was just now noticing. “You’ll see when we get there,” Lindsay said and Meg wondered if she was the only one who heard her mutter, “but you’re not going to like it.”

–

Michael didn’t think there was anyone he hated in this world quite as much as he hated Gavin Free.

He was a prick, an asshole, Michael couldn’t come up with a single positive trait when he thought about Gavin Free, not that he was going to waste his time thinking about that dick. Now Lindsay wanted him to work with the smug British fuck. The asshole couldn’t even show up on time. “Let’s just go, Burnie can find us someone.”

Lindsay looked over at him like he was a child, a child who was interrupting her very important conversation about manicures or whatever with Meg, and maybe that’s because it wasn’t the first time he’d complained about how late Gavin was.

“He’s on his way,” she said, and he felt like she was scolding him the same way she would a child. Her words were followed immediately by a large crash as an ugly silver piece of shit jumped the curb and knocked over a table before coming to a stop. “He’s here,” Lindsay said as the prick climbed out of his car and walked over to them. “Gavin,” she said with a smile getting up from the table and pulling him into a hug.

“Lindsay,” he said in an obnoxious cheery voice, he caught sight of Michael over Lindsay’s shoulder while they were in the hug, “and lovely Michael.” He wasn’t sure how Gavin managed to make his voice sound even more obnoxiously cheery and excited but he did as he said Michael’s name.

The way Gavin said his name made Michael want to punch him in his abnormally sized nose. His accent mangled it until it came out sounding like Micool. “Gavin,” he grit out, making no effort at all to hide from him how much Michael did not want to be there, or anywhere near Gavin at all.

Gavin smiled, and even that was annoying he only moved half of his face and his smile looked more like a smirk, but Michael’s annoyance had always made him weirdly amused.

He fell into the chair beside Michael like he was a puppet who’d had his strings cut. He smirked at Michael for a few seconds, seeming pleased for himself for no reason, probably just because he knew his presence pissed Michael off. After Michael flipped him off, Gavin turned his attention elsewhere and finally noticed Meg. His mouth had moved so it was sitting sideways on his face, that’s the only way Michael could explain how that fucking smirk got wider, he looked like a goddamn Picasso. “Who’s this bird?”

“She isn’t a pet, she’s a person,” Michael said, upset for reasons he didn’t really know but it was probably because Gavin had a punchable face and Michael couldn’t punch him.

Meg and Lindsay both looked at him, surprised at his outburst, or Meg was surprised Lindsay looked a little annoyed. “Sorry mate, didn’t mean to hit on your girl.”

“Meg, her name is Meg, and she’s not my anything.”

Michael had never seen someone actually leer before but here was Gavin doing just that. “Still single then ickle Micool,” he asked in a sickening baby voice, “or you finally shacking up with Lindsay?”

“No one is shaking up with anyone,” Lindsay said and Michael was very familiar with that clipped ‘I’m starting to get pissed at you but I’m going to refrain from kicking your ass for now’ tone.

“Alright, sorry love no need to get minged off.”

Michael caught Meg’s eyes as she looked confused, clearly trying to figure out if there was something she was missing. ‘Not a real word,’ he mouthed and ignored the warm feeling he got when she giggled, he just wanted someone to dislike Gavin with him since Lindsay thought he was harmless. Something he couldn’t believe since the asshole thought it was okay to call her love.

“Gavin, I’m calling in that favor you owe me,” Lindsay said.

“What favor?” Gavin asked, his confusion turned the question into a squawk and with that nose of his Michael couldn’t help but think of him as a bird.

“I gave you Barb’s number last time you were here,” she reminded.

“The fuck are you hitting on Turney and Lindsay if you’re fucking Barbara?” Michael asked feeling irrationally irritated at the nerve of this guy. Was it a European thing where he thought he had to sleep with anything with tits and a pulse?

“Don’t leave yourself out my lovely little boy,” Michael could feel his face heating up and he was sure it was because he was angry at the nerve of this guy, “and I’m not shagging Barbara. She was my bloody bodyguard last time I was here. ‘Sides she’s got a boyfriend anyway, bloke could rip me apart.”

“Aaron’s a lawyer,” Lindsay said skeptically.

“So,” Gavin said sounding indignant, “bastard’s still bloody huge.”

“What’d you need a bodyguard for?” Michael asked, trying to remember the last time Gavin had been in the states. As a part of the crew, he tried to keep up with the people in their business who went in and out of the city, the last time he remembered Gavin being in the city he was working a job for Geoff, a job that resulted in a permanent job offer that Gavin thought he was too good for. That’d been close to a year ago and while Lindsay would hold on to a favor for forever before cashing it in, he was sure that Gavin must have been in the city more recently than that if he needed Barb.

Gavin shrugged off his question but Michael could see the tension and discomfort in his shoulders. “You know, I was only in for a bit helping Burnie with a thing, can’t be too careful.” Michael could hear what Gavin was carefully trying to avoid saying. Before he’d come into town to help Burnie he’d turned down an offer from Geoff Ramsey, and he was smart enough to realize he should be worried about coming back into the city after pissing off the Fake AH Crew.

“Gavin, we want to talk about having you join our team,” Lindsay said.

“Straight to business then, right oh, I don’t talk business on an empty stomach.”

To Michael’s, and he would like to think everyone else’s amazement, Gavin was entirely serious and he started waving his hand at the waitress to bring her over. “Is it too early to start drinking,” he asked certain he didn’t deserve her getting out of her seat to smack him, it was a serious question.

It took a few minutes but the finally got everything ordered and to their table. “Can we start,” Meg asked once the waitress had left. They had been sitting pretty much in silence once they’d ordered, none of them wanted to start talking about the job on the off chance that their waitress came back when they were talking about something illegal. No one knew his or Lindsay’s face and Gavin was a hacker so no one gave a shit about him, but you couldn’t risk someone hearing you talking about a hostile takeover and realizing that hostile meant murder.

Lindsay nodded, agreeing that it was finally time to get this fucking show on the road. “We’re going after the Corpirate,” she said softly keeping her eyes on their waitress so Lindsay could be sure she wouldn’t walk up in the middle of their conversation.

Gavin tensed and reached for the silverware that had come with their meal. “I’m trying my best to be polite,” Michael said, “but if you move that knife an inch closer to me I will tear you apart.”

Gavin slowly pried his fingers from said knife, “I don’t think that’s how the line goes, Michael.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” Gavin demonstrated, propping his head on his hand as he leaned across the table at him.

Michael leaned in close to Gavin, mirroring the other man’s stance to that their faces were just a breath away from each other, “That is a gun in my pocket and I’m never happy to see you.”

“Not to kill the mood, but the Corpirate,” Meg reminded.

Gavin shifted his attention from Michael and back to Meg. “So what’s a bird like you doing with the likes of these two?”

Michael saw Meg sigh slightly, she’d had a small grin from where she’d been watching the two of them, but with Gavin’s question it faltered and she wilted in her seat. “She’s a friend of Lindsay’s,” Michael said.

Meg opened her mouth and Michael was little afraid that she would contradict him. He made a note to tell her that when he or Lindsay said something to someone who was a criminal that she should just go with it, trust was hard to get and when you disagreed with one of them everything else that they said would be questioned. It didn’t really matter with Gavin, but when they started dealing with people closer to the Corpirate it could get one of them killed, and Michael was not dying to take out some small time shit like the Corpirate.

“She’s also got the Corpirate after her,” Lindsay said before Meg could say whatever it is she was going to.

Gavin looked like he didn’t believe either of them and Michael remembered that while he might think that Gavin was an idiot but as the tech expert he spent most of his time behind a screen and watching people and he was actually pretty good at reading them, it was why he was so good at pushing their buttons. “So you’re taking out the Corpirate and you want my help?” he asked.

“We need you to set up tech. We don’t want or need you anywhere near the action,” Michael said.

“It’ll be around two weeks,” Lindsay warned, “maybe less depending on how this goes.”

“What’s in it for me?” Gavin asked, and Michael was instantly struck by the realization that this wasn’t going to work. Gavin was a lazy asshole who refused to do anything if it didn’t directly benefit him. There wasn’t a chance in hell Gavin would stick around since he had no real ties to this case, not unless they gave him something that would make him want to stick around to the end.

“You don’t get anything,” Lindsay said sounding only a little annoyed which was a testament to how amazingly patient Lindsay was. “You owe me a favor, all you get out of this is not owing me anymore.”

Michael could actually see Gavin wavering and knew he had to throw in something to sweeten the deal, because as much as he didn’t really want to work with Gavin, Ryan and Geoff had both made it clear that they needed someone and that someone was Gavin. “You’d be doing the crew a solid,” he said, hoping that would be enough.

Gavin’s eyes widened and Michael was glad that he did actually seem to understand what a big deal it was. Or maybe he just wanted to be able to come and go from the city without having to hire someone to guard him in case the crew decided to take him out.

“Alright, I’m in.” Gavin said, though Michael still wouldn’t stake his life on Gavin not bailing if things started looking like they were going sour. “What’re we going to do now?”

“We’ll go to my apartment,” Michael said at the same time as Lindsay.

There was a brief staring match and Michael could feel Meg and Gavin’s eyes boring into him as they watched his silent battle, but looking at them or doing anything but holding Lindsay’s stare would mean losing. “My apartment already has mine and Meg’s stuff in it,” she said.

“My apartment has all my shit in it, plus half your armory.”

“I won’t need my armory, we aren’t killing anyone,” she said, but she made that face she always makes when she’s lying, and it was her eyebrow on the side of her face that Meg was watching that twitched, which made him think that she was the one Lindsay was lying to.

“Fine, my apartment is bigger and closer,” Michael said.

“That’s not the only thing that’s bigger,” Gavin said, causing both Michael and Lindsay to break from their staring contest to look at him, “wait.”

“It’s not the size that matters,” Meg said, looking about as confused as Michael felt with the turn that this conversation had taken.

“Anyway,” Michael said, “my place?”

Lindsay sighed, “Meg and I are going to have to get some things from my place.”

Meg grabbed her keys looking to Lindsay as if she was waiting for her to start arguing again. “We’ll meet you there after that, make sure Gavin actually gets there.” The second half felt unnecessary, he might not like Gavin but he’d make sure he got to the apartment, eventually. “Go ahead and start the car,” she told Meg, “you’ll want the air going before we get in.”

“It gets hot as dicks in town,” Michael agreed.

Meg pressed a button and they heard the car start. The two girls stood and an explosion roared, knocking them both to the grown. Years of instinct took over as Michael dropped from his chair and flipped their table on its side, he pulled his gun from behind his back and pushed Meg so that she was crouched behind him. He looked over and saw Lindsay had done the same, pulling Gavin from his chair and moving him behind her. They were both crouched close to the flipped table with Meg and Gavin sitting a foot away both looking like they’d been stunned. Michael looked up and down the street, years of working with Ray had him searching for someone carrying a rocket launcher.

“My car,” Meg said quietly and Michael stopped looking for someone with a rocket launcher and actually looked at what had blown. Her car was still flaming, but the explosion had been a fairly small explosion all things considered, it looked like the hood of her car had been blown close to a block away and her car door was now in the middle of the street. His first impression said it was a sloppy job, but he wanted a closer look.

Lindsay was looking over at him, apparently also deciding that there wasn’t actually anyone dangerous in the area, and they put their weapons away but left the table as it was. “Looks like we need a change of plans.”


	5. Chapter 5

Lindsay was convinced that Meg was one misstep away from a panic attack.

She was sitting at their table making stilted small talk with Gavin. Lindsay could see him pause for long periods as he patiently waited for Meg to process whatever he had said and respond, all the while, her eyes were locked on Michael who was across the street trying to climb inside her car.

There’d been a moment of panic when the explosion had happened. It had been small, even with her somewhat limited knowledge of explosives she’d know that, but it had been enough to knock the two of them to the ground when it had blown. As she looked around, trying to get her bearings, she couldn’t help the warm fuzzy feeling she felt when she’d see that even as Michael switched into his instinctive Mogar mode, part of that instinct had been to shove Meg behind him to a place of relative safety.

Michael was her best friend but he could be a lot like Gavin, not that he’d admit it, in that he didn’t go out of his way to help people he didn’t like. Not that she thought he would leave Meg to die or anything, even if you didn’t like a crew member you didn’t leave them to die on purpose. But, as she pushed Gavin behind her, there had been a small niggling worry that Michael would just start shooting at whoever or whatever had caused the explosion and leave Meg to find her own cover. He hadn’t though, in the same motion he’d used to flip their table for cover, he’d grabbed ahold of Meg’s arm and pulled until she moved enough to be safe.

It was sweet, in the sort of way that Michael was, and it gave her a little hope that maybe this could all work out. Crews were hard to work with when everyone knew each other well, people fought in high stress situations even when you were with friends; but a crew where you were bringing in a new member, a rookie to the job, it could make things blow up in your face that much faster. Everyone getting along now, even including Michael and Gavin’s bickering, at such an early stage was a very good sign.

There was even a small part of her that thought they could maybe be friends, once all of this was over. It would be nice to have a girlfriend, a friend who was a girl she corrected herself, who wasn’t in the business. Someone she could hang out with where a lull in the conversation didn’t mean the conversation went straight to murder talk. Not like she didn’t have friends, but her girl friends extended to Barb, Arryn, and Kara and since those ladies made up the rest of the RWBY crew it meant a lot of shop talk whenever they were all together. They also took hits from across the state so it was rare that the four of them were ever in the same area at the same time. Which meant she spent most of her free time with Michael. Time, she realized after Gavin mentioned it, that had started to feel more and more like dating.

That was something to deal with later, because right now someone was trying really hard to kill them. Their new plan started with Michael calling Kerry so he could actually get a closer look at the car. “Dragon face is on the way. Told us to scram so he doesn't have to lie about seeing us,” he said as he jogged back over from Meg’s car, “but I’ve seen what I need to.”

“Think he prefers Detective Shawcross now,” she said looking at the vehicle Michael had just spent the last twenty minutes going over.

“Can’t pick your nickname,” he said with a shrug, “and maybe he should be more careful about what he says when he gets drunk.”

“Do we need to worry about fingerprints, or another cop showing up,” she asked, surprised they hadn’t already had a team of first responders to deal with.

“Kerry faked the call in, said there were already firemen on scene and that it was a RWBY job, he didn’t want anyone fucking with the crime scene.”

“So Kerry lied for us,” she said summarizing what Michael had just told her.

“That’s why Burnie keeps him on the payroll. What good is a dirty cop if he doesn’t lie?”

“And we’re..?” she let the question hang, not sure if she wanted Michael to tell her that they’d do whatever she wanted because she was in charge, or to take charge himself.

“Well, we sure as shit aren’t going to tell the reporter about the dirty cop but I’ll probably tell her what happened to her car. You’ll maybe want to call Barb and warn her that she’s going to get credit for this, since it was an explosion and Kerry is calling it a RWBY case.”

“And we’ll go to the group to decide what happens next.” she prompted looking back at Meg and Gavin to find them both watching her and Michael.

“Well we’re a team,” Michael agreed, “and who knows, maybe Gavin will have a good idea for once.”

Lindsay rolled her eyes, Michael had bitched about Gavin from the second he’d turned down the offer from the crew, and she knew he only did it because he had liked the Brit at one point. Cause sure, crew loyalty went a long way, but she didn’t see Ryan or Ray or any of the others getting quite as upset as Michael did when Gavin bailed.

She knew Michael well enough to know that when he liked someone and they left he was likely to do a complete 180 and find a way to hate everything about them. With as flirty as Gavin had been she had a feeling they’d been pretty close before Gavin left. Michael had always been a pretty open book and just watching the two of them interact today she’d seen a sort of tension between the two of them that she figured meant if Gavin had stuck around they’d’ve been ‘shagging,’ as Gavin had put it, on the regular.

“What happened, Meg asked once they walked over.

“Ignition bomb, fucking sloppy,” Michael said, “most of it went with the explosion but I found a couple pieces of it left. Judging by the damage it did to your car it probably wouldn’t have killed you, but they were definitely trying.”

Lindsay watched the color drain from Meg’s face with that. “It was your car so they must have just noticed it in town and thought they could get rid of you quickly, it doesn’t mean anything serious.” Lindsay said.

“But what does that mean, exactly?” Meg asked, and Lindsay was starting to notice that Meg liked to deal with absolutes; not that she could fault her, given the situation she’d found herself in.

“Well, they know you’re in the city, but hopefully that’s all they know.”

“Hopefully they blew their load on this and they won’t bother you for a while.” Michael added.

“So what’s the plan then, lads?” Gavin asked.

“We need to split up, divide and conquer like we were going to before.” Lindsay said.

“Are you sure that’s safe?” Meg asked, understandably wary.

“The car they hit was yours, so there’s no telling if they know I’m working with you.”

Meg nodded, “We shouldn’t go together then, just in case, right?”

“I’m not going anywhere with Gavin,” Michael announced and Lindsay wondered how someone who just watched their car blow up could be more flexible and willing to compromise than Michael, but she’d known him long enough where she should really expect it.

“Don’t want to see the inside of my flat, Michael? And I so wanted to give you the grand tour.”

“Michael you come with me,” Lindsay said hoping to steer off that argument before it could start, the last thing she needed was the two of them starting fights inside their group before they started fighting with someone else. “If they rigged Meg’s car to blow there’s no telling what could have done to my apartment.”

“We bringin’ Turney with us,” he asked and Lindsay hadn’t even begun to think about where to send Meg, she wasn’t used to having someone who wasn’t in the business to watch out for, someone she had to make decisions for. She didn’t panic, because that wasn’t something professional's did; but she would admit to a moment of uncertainty about how this would all work if she was going to keep watching after Meg like she was a lost child always making sure she knew where she was.

“I should go with Gavin, right?” Lindsay’s panic left for a second, and came back when she couldn’t figure out if Meg was asking or telling. She either saw Lindsay’s state of inner turmoil, Lindsay wasn’t sure how good her poker face actually was since she only gambled with other liars and cheats, or she might have just seen the face Michael always involuntarily makes whenever Gavin’s name is mentioned. “It makes the most sense, or it’s the safest anyway.” she looked over at the way Gavin’s car was parked, “Safer as long as I drive.”

“Fine with me, love, I’m not even licensed; and I can’t wait to give you the grand tour.”

“If you say it ends in the bedroom, I’m going to rip off your dick,” Michael said.

At the same time Meg was yelling, “Why the hell are you driving without a license? You could kill someone!”

Gavin barely reacted to the two yelling in his face, and if it had just been Michael it would have made sense, Gavin was probably used to getting yelled at by Michael. If you worked with Michael for more than five minutes you got used to the yelling. Gavin just looked between the two of them, like they were boring him, he looked at Lindsay then, “Got anything to add? Three shouting redheads are better than two.”

That got everyone moving again. Michael looked like he was going to yell some more, which was really just what his face looked like when he was around Gavin. Lindsay was fighting a smirk as she thought about giving him what he wanted, seemed Free had a type. While Lindsay enjoyed the push and pull that was flirting with Gavin Free, she could see him actually trying something serious with Meg; not that she knew enough about Meg to have any basis for that, it was just a feeling. Then there was Meg, who had absolutely no problem reaching into Gavin’s pants pocket, and grabbed his car keys from him.

“I’ll drive Gavin to wherever we need to go,” Meg said, watching him carefully to see if he would try to argue.

Lindsay nodded, “Michael and I will grab your stuff and meet back at his place when we’re done.” Meg’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion and she opened her mouth to speak, Lindsay realized that Meg wouldn’t know where Michael’s apartment actually was and Gavin definitely wouldn’t admit to knowing with Michael within striking distance, “We’ll call when we’re finished and let you know where to go.”

Meg smiled as a way of goodbye and the two separated, each pushing their guys toward a car.

She paused, liking the way ‘their guys’ sounded, as it rolled around in her head, it had a momentum like it was something they were already moving toward.

—

Gavin was… something.

That’s all Meg could settle on, something. He’d been blustery and flirty when they first met up with him, with smirks and winks sent her and Lindsay’s way in between innuendo laden remarks set to Michael. But then he was strangely sweet, as he tried to help her regulate her breathing as she freaked out, not so silently, as Michael and Lindsay looked over her no longer flaming car. He had been soft spoken, trying to sense out what was going to keep her from taking a swift dive off the deep end.

She was still trying to get her feet under her when it came to the dynamic of this group she was now in, really, when it came to everything about this group. There was Lindsay who was strangely upbeat for someone who makes a living by killing people. Then she’d met Michael who’d seemed really cool when she’d first met him, he still did, but there was an edge of uncertainty as she tried to separate the idea of Michael from the idea of Mogar that she was more familiar with. Gavin was something different all together and she didn’t have a neat set of labels to put with him.

She didn’t really have a neat set of labels for any of them, now that she was watching them interact. Meg also didn’t know why she wanted to put labels on them anyway, she knew as well as anyone that labels didn’t really work for people. It just made her feel like her head was on a little straighter, until these assholes made things difficult by not fitting in easy to manage boxes.

Like Michael who seemed to hate Gavin, but they had a tension between them that you could cut with a knife and Meg hadn’t heard that many pickup lines used one after another that hadn’t ended in someone getting laid.  But then she thought about how Michael had looked at Lindsay when she’d first met him, if she ever had a guy or anyone look at her like that Meg vowed to marry him on the spot. Michael had been so desperate to help, nearly forcing Lindsay to come up with some excuse so he could; that wasn’t even including how quick he was to snap at Gavin’s come-ons that were directed at her, but then he did the same for the one’s directed at Meg. Was it because he didn’t want Gavin hitting on Lindsay, whom he liked, and he didn’t want Gavin scaring Meg away, or was it he didn’t want Gavin, whom he liked, to hit on two other people.

The whole thing was starting to give her a fucking headache, and she hadn’t even started to consider what things might mean if the three of them all liked each other. Was that something people did? She knew about polyamory, had done a little research into the subject in college, but weren’t criminals supposed to be into the lone wolf thing, she honestly had no idea. She also wasn’t sure why she cared so much, no, that wasn’t true, she could probably guess why she cared. If there was one thing Gavin, Michael, and Lindsay had in common is that they were all unfairly attractive. Meg hadn’t know any of them long, but she remembered enough from that psych class she had to take her freshman year that it was easy for the brain to confuse adrenaline with affection.

“Turney,” a British voice yelled beside her, and the tone had her thinking this wasn’t the first time her name had been called.

“What,” she snapped back, unintentionally matching his tone.

Gavin eased back into the passenger seat and Meg wondered if he expected her to snap the same way she had seen Michael. “You’re going to miss the turn,” he said pointing to the turnoff that was quickly approaching and that she would need to merge into the full lane of traffic next to her to get to.

She slowed the car down and flipped her signal, hoping that Gavin knew another road she could take to his apartment when she ended up missing this turn. She could feel the confused look on Gavin’s face as he tried to figure out what she was doing. He didn’t say anything, just glanced out his window at the cars moving in the other lane, before he reached across the car and grabbed ahold of the wheel, jerking it directing into oncoming traffic.

She was stunned into silence, hands scrabbling at his to push them off of the wheel, the horns of the other drivers’ vocalizing the anger and fucking terror she was feeling. Gavin let go of the wheel as the car pulled into the empty street he had pointed to earlier, the one that his apartment was on somewhere. Then he flopped back into the passenger seat like he hadn’t just put both of their lives in danger. “What the fuck?” was the only thing she could think to say that covered everything that was running through her head.

He just shrugged and Meg was starting to understand why Michael might hate him. “You were going to miss the turn.” Meg gaped at him for a second, mouth opening and closing like a fish as her brain tried to process what might be the dumbest reason she’d almost been killed, and she was starting to acquire quite a list. “You’re gonna miss the next one as well,” he said reaching for the wheel again.

She slapped his hands away, much less concerned about the backlash of that action when she was doing it to him than when she’d done it to Lindsay earlier in the day. She turned into the garage he’d pointed to, glaring at him the whole way. “You do realize this is my car?” he asked once she’d parked, “That all of these,” he gestured to another car and a bike that were poorly parked near them, “are mine.”

“You do realize that driving without a license is illegal,” she said.

He laughed at her, a grin on his face until what she said and the tone she said it in clicked in his head, “What you’re serious?”

“Yes, I’m fucking serious, after all of the shit I’ve gone through this week the _last_ thing that’s going to take me out is some asshole like you.”

Gavin listened to her outburst and the look on his face didn’t change, like he was amused that he made her lose her cool. No wonder he drove Michael so insane, Meg had already seen how easy it was to get Michael to lash out and she had seen how Gavin like to push him to getting angry. The shrug was infuriating, he was blowing her off unapologetically but what pissed her off even more was how attractive she found that smirking face that was blowing her off like her concerns were silly. “Alright love, you can drive if it means that much to you.”

Meg trailed behind Gavin as he left the garage calling the elevator to take them up to his apartment. “Do you just not care about all the people you’re putting in danger?” she asked, looking up at him stunned that he was only agreeing to keep her from arguing.

They sat in the elevator in silence, and Meg thought that maybe she’d succeed in guilting Gavin into feeling bad about what he’d been doing. “I don’t know these people,” he said as the elevator doors opened and they walked toward his door, “why should I care?”

“Because they’re people!” Meg said following behind him without a thought as he walked through his door, too aggravated to stop arguing to even look around at where she was.

“People that have no effect on me, alive or not.”

“They’ll affect you if they’re dead,” she said, unable to believe that the thing that would get this guy to care was if it applied directly to him, “vehicular manslaughter is illegal.”

He laughed, a reaction that was becoming common enough that she was wondering if she should have taken up a career in comedy instead of journalism. “Look around, Turney,” a statement she knew was rhetorical but she did look around at her surroundings for the first time, at the massive computer mount that dominated the space in the apartment, and at the lone Mac that was hidden in the set up. She turned her attention back to Gavin before he finished his point, “Look at who you’re hangin’ out with, everythin’ we do is illegal.”

Meg was starting to think that the word she'd been looking for earlier to describe Gavin was asshole. He was right though, and while every bit of her wanted to keep arguing with him, she hated having an argument she knew she couldn't win. Especially when her only argument she had left was everyone has a little good inside of them, which was both a moral from a Disney movie and was going to result in a stream of pickup lines about what else could be inside her that she didn't want to deal with. “What’s with the set-up,” she asked, very aware that she was changing the subject and that it was super obvious.

“I’m a hacker, I thought that’s why you hired me.” he said and the contempt was palpable.

She rolled her eyes, sending a half- hearted glare his way, “Not what I meant, what’s with the Mac in your otherwise perfect setup.”

Gavin glared at her, it was the first time she’d seen him actually look close to upset since she’d met him. Which was pretty funny when she thought about all the awful things Michael had said to Gavin just a little while earlier. "You're one of those people."

She couldn't help it, between Gavin's tone of voice and the ridiculous number of tech he had set up in his apartment she couldn't help but giggle. "PC, master race," she said winking at him, laughing again as he huffed and walked over to start disassembling his stuff to take with them.

—

It really wasn’t that that long of a trip from the cafe they had lunch at in the center of Los Santos to Lindsay’s apartment, at least not if you know how to drive. It had taken Meg forever to get them there, which was good for getting to know each other a little bit better, but other than that, it was just ridiculous. Meg wasn’t a bad driver, she drove like any other normal person - five over in the city and at least ten over while they were on the highway - but Michael drove like he’d been born in Los Santos - speed limits were more like suggestions and he was fond of the unofficial ramp system that was in place. It took him about five minutes to make it back to her place and Michael had been strangely silent for most of it.

He slid into a spot in the parking lot, and she was starting to get pissed that he wasn’t saying anything at all, usually he was always running his mouth about something stupid or he’d start singing some stupid song he made up. He just stepped out of her car and started moving toward her apartment before she could even get out of the car. She jogged to catch up from him, noticing for the first time that Michael had bulked up since the last time she’d seen him, which had been weeks ago now that she thought about it. Jobs had kept them away from each other, which happened a lot, and while they did text and call pretty often you couldn’t really see how a person had added muscle, a whole lot of muscle as far as she could tell through his jacket, through the phone.

She didn’t know what his new workout routine included, but he had bolted away from her and she only managed to catch up with him as he was laying on the floor outside her door. “What are you,” she started to ask before he shushed her and if she hadn’t been so shocked, she would have stepped on him.

“Trip wire,” was all he said and she stared at him like he would be able to feel her eyes boring into him and explain more. He poked around on the floor for a few minutes as Lindsay stared at him trying to decide if she should offer to help of just stand there and be quiet.

He stood and brushed himself off a second later, and her door looked exactly the same as it had before. “Was there actually something wired to my door?” she asked, amazed that Michael had noticed it before he’d gotten through the door, before he’d even opened the door - and that someone thought it was a good idea to put a tripwire on the door to an apartment.

“No,” he said, not bothering to say anything else like why the hell he actually thought there would be anything there, or what lying on the floor would have done if there had been anything.

He didn’t even bother to move so she could unlock her own door, he pulled a set of pins from his sleeve and made quick work of her lock before she could even tell him to move. Pushing it open without a word, and she was starting to wonder what the hell his problem was. She even started to ask, because if there’s one thing she’s not it’s shy, but he didn’t even stop when walked through her door. He just went to what she guessed were the prime bomb hiding locations in her apartment.

She let Michael do his thing, going back to her own room instead of following behind him like she might have any other time. Michael was in a bitchy mood for some reason, she would beat that reason out of him at some point, but now it was just easier to dig out the things she would need for the upcoming days of case work.

She had her own duffle packed within minutes, it didn’t need much, her go-bag was in her closet already and it really only needed a couple things to be really ready to go. She walked back into her living room and dropped her own bag before moving just down the hall to the guest room to grab Meg’s duffle. Which left her standing like an idiot in her own home, waiting for Michael to finish doing whatever it was that he was doing and let her know if apartment was no longer wired to blow.

He came back in like he was summoned by her annoyed thoughts, he appeared silently and practically from nowhere and looked at her expectantly. “Well, is my,” she started to ask before he glared her into silence, strange because she actually let him shut her up and because he was actually being quiet too. He held up a small piece of tech walking over to her with light steps, like he was scared to make a sound, and pressing whatever he was holding into her hand. Watching her expectantly.

She looked down at it, she didn’t say anything because this time there was actually a reason that Michael was telling her to be quiet and it wasn’t just because he was being pissy. She looked down and tried to figure out just what Michael had found floating around in her apartment. It was small, small enough where if she hadn’t been looking for it she probably wouldn’t have noticed it, maybe wouldn’t have noticed it, she had no clue where it had actually been just that Michael had found it on his search for explosives. It was flat and the side that had pressed into her hand had a sticky residue, from what she figured was some kind of glue that had held it in whatever place it had been before. “Bug,” she mouthed at him, pretty certain that’s what it was because she’d used her fair share, really she was more curious to hear if he found anymore in her place.

He nodded, taking it from her hand and placing it on the table next to them, looking back at her expectantly. “Should we,” she mouthed carefully while pointing to the door.

He nodded again, grabbing both Lindsay and Meg’s bag from the floor motioning toward the door with his full hands. As soon as the door shut behind them, she started speaking again, “So where’d you find it, did you find anymore, what are we going to do about this, shit I’m going to have to move now.”

“Wow Linds, how hard was it to keep quiet for the whole ten minutes we were in the apartment?”

“Shut the fuck up and answer the damn question,” she said.

“Which one, you asked like fifteen.” Her glare was enough to make him laugh and attempt to raise his hands in surrender, he succeeded in shuffling the bags as he raised his arms a few inches but the intent came across. “Alright, I found it in the guest room, it was in the lampshade. No, I didn’t find any more but I think your whole place is probably wired. I don’t know what the hell we’re gonna do, probably the same thing we were gonna do before, whatever the fuck that was. Fuck, if I know if you have to move Linds, that’s really your call.” Michael threw the bags into the back of his car while Lindsay climbed into the passenger seat before following her into the car. “There’s a spot open in my building if you decide you gotta get out.”

She smiled, she was sure Michael would be able to see how fakey sweet it was, or he would if he would actually look at her. “And you got so upset when Gavin used the same shitty line.”

Now he was looking at her, not that his pissed off face was any better than him refusing to take his eyes off of the road. “It’s not the same thing. I didn’t offer you my bed,” Michael heard what he said and his face got pink as he forcefully turned so that his face was pointed back at the road. She had to wince a little in sympathy, even as she tried to figure out what his problem was, that had to be a little disorienting with the speed he whipped his neck around to face front; but his blushing was just one more thing to add to the list of weird things going on with him today.

“There really is an apartment open in my building.” he repeated, sounding a little petulant maybe because Lindsay had compared what he thought was good will to some pickup line of Gavin’s.

“What’s your deal today? Seriously, you’ve been weird since I showed up with Meg.”

“I haven’t been weird. You’re being weird.”

“You have too, it made sense before when I, maybe, lied to you a little but now you’re just acting bitchy.”

“I’m not bitchy, just cause you got laid recently doesn’t mean you can start talking shit.” Michael snapped with a white knuckle grip on the steering wheel.

“Are you jealous? I haven’t gotten laid in months, so not sure who you think I’m screwing anyway. Unless you’re worried about _who_ I’m fucking.”

“Why should I care if you’re sleeping with Meg, it’d make more sense that that’s why you didn’t kill her then you just felt like being nice.”

Lindsay stared at the side of his face, he was resolutely staring at the road even though she could tell he knew she was staring him down, he refused to break his gaze from the road and actually turn to look at her.

“I’ve known Meg for,” she paused and glanced down at the dash to check the time, “a full day now, and I haven’t slept with her, even if I did it wouldn’t be any of your business. I thought you were worried I’d slept with Gavin.”

His grip tightened around the wheel, she was starting to worry that he might snap it in half. “Why the fuck would I care if you were,” he took a breath and launched into the worst impression of Gavin or any British person she’d ever heard, “shagging little Gavvy.”

“Because you want Gavin to fuck you,” she said it, finally she said it.

Lindsay had been waiting to throw that in Michael’s face for so long. Not because she didn’t love Michael, he was her best friend, but seriously there’d been a stick up his ass since Gavin had left the crew for the first time and she’d had to listen to him complain about Gavin at least once whenever he got drunk with her.

His jaw dropped and the tips of his ears got pink again, she expected him to yell, he always yelled when he got freaked out by something. He surprised her, something he didn’t really manage to do very often since they knew each other so well. “What makes you think I’d be catching?”

She blinked and shook her head, it was amazing what Michael managed to latch onto sometimes but at least he wasn’t yelling. “That’s,” she paused and tried again, “I know you too well to have this discussion.”

“What the fuck does that mean,” he raised his voice slightly, but he hadn’t started really yelling yet, he had turned to look at her though.

“Oh come on, like it’s some big secret that the crew is very free loving.”

“You are so full of shit,” he wasn’t looking at her anymore and she could feel the car speeding up like if he got back to his apartment sooner she would drop the subject, he really should know her better than that.

“So you’re saying you haven’t gotten a little action with the other guys,” she said. Knowing that even if he didn’t admit it, and he had before maybe not when he was sober but he’d said it, that his pale face would answer for him.

He stayed resolutely silent and he did manage to keep from blushing, which was impressive for him, but his speedometer betrayed him as it started to creep up toward the nineties. “Not that I would blame you, I mean Ryan is,” she let the statement dangle there. She wasn’t really interested in Ryan, she could see the appeal but he wasn’t really her type. “Geoff’s pretty handsome too, all of the gents really, and you do have that history with Ray.”

“What’s your point, Lindsay,” Michael asked, he was whining. He sounded desperate, not his usual shouty self, and it had her wondering if she’d maybe crossed a line.

“I’m just saying, if you were jealous that Gavin isn’t paying attention to you or whatever, I would understand.”

He scoffed, “Free is paying more than enough attention to me, not that I fucking care what that dick does.”

“You’d care if that dick was doing you,” she said with a grin, hoping to make the conversation light and pleasant.

“I’d be doing him,” he said, it felt like it was something he let slip out. Like it was something he hadn’t really meant for her to hear, but he didn’t jump to take it back, so maybe it wasn’t as accidental as she thought.

“Sure you would,” she gave his arm a condescending pat, she was his friend so it was really her job to put an end to whatever macho posturing this was, “cause you totally didn’t say,” she paused to prepare her best gruff man voice, a total mockery of his own, “not sure about pegging, but for you I’d try.”

“What’s your fucking point,” he said.

“Just callin’ you on your bullshit, babe,” she said with a smile, “so you gonna call Gavin.”

“What, no,” he said in a panicky voice, “why the fuck would I call him?”

She smiled because Michael never really knew how far gone he was until it was too late, and he was really far gone. “Because you need to tell him where your apartment is. He’ll just find it himself if you don’t.”

“Whatever,” he said, “I will when we get there, and only,” he stressed the word totally unnecessarily, “because I don’t want him trying to dig into my life.”

—

Gavin was very good at watching people, but really bad at talking to them when he wasn’t just trying to piss them off.

He’d been watching Meg as they disassembled his station, it wasn’t creepy he decided, he was just observing a very attractive woman that he would be working with for the next several days. Nothing weird about that, or the fact that he couldn’t speak to her.

He could go back to bickering, if she was willing to start the argument again, but every time he looked at her he couldn't figure out what to say. So he stuck to what he was good at, and watched her and tried to figure out what things made her tick. He had figured out that she was a little up tight, and even if he was partially responsible for the tight line of her shoulders, she’d relaxed some since getting to his apartment and it seemed like she was lost in her own head as much as he was, as she helped him tear down his set up for transport.

All he knew about her he’d gotten from what he’d managed to gather from meeting with Michael and Lindsay, well that and what he’d managed to find when he looked her up on his phone in the car. She wasn’t a criminal, he hadn’t needed a background check to know that, it was in the way she held herself compared to Michael and Lindsay. It was obvious she was usually a woman who was very sure of herself but when put between the two of them she looked like someone who’d been tossed in the bloody deep end without a life vest. A basic search of her name and a sneaky picture had shown that she was a reporter, one who had probably only just met Michael and Lindsay let alone being close enough to either of them to be friends. Not that Michael wanted friends, he’d made that clear after their last heist, he’d been nothing but hostile with Gavin since then. It hadn’t needed much digging at all to find some pictures from Meg’s modelling career, she’d been very good at it, not that he knew much about modeling just that she was a very pretty person and was very comfortable in her own body it made for some appealing shots that he’d been sure to save. Meg seemed sweet, in all, and Gavin hadn’t looked far enough into her to figure out what she’d done to need him as well as the other two, just that it involved the Corpirate and she seemed frightened.

He’d gotten trapped in his own thoughts, and they’d almost finished taking down everything that he’d need for however long this thing was going to last. It was the first time he’d had to take his own setup apart. He left the one set up here in his Los Santos apartment and then he had the other one back home in England, whenever he had to work he generally did so from one of the two, or someone actually had a set up ready for him. Geoff had had something small ready for him in one of the back rooms of his penthouse whenever he’d worked with him, nothing like what he had at home but good enough for the small jobs he worked with the crew.

“How’d you get into this,” Meg asked in a soft voice, so quiet that Gavin almost missed the question entirely.

“Get into what,” he asked looking around his feet to make sure he hadn’t accidentally gotten himself tangled up in something.

“Hacking,” she said with a small giggle, “did you just see The Matrix and decide you wanted to be Neo or is there some backstory?”

He looked down, going back to wrapping the cord he had in his hand, so that she hopefully wouldn’t see him blush as he answered. “I like cameras,” it sounded like such a dumb answer when he said it out loud but it made so much more sense in his head, like a lot of things that had people calling him dumb or stupid.

“Okay,” she said, clearly not understanding what he was saying. Not that it was the first time, people usually didn’t understand the things that he said when they made a lot of sense in his own brain, it just meant that he was going to have to make an effort to explain more.

“I like cinematography,” he said, hoping that if he started with something that sounded a little smarter than the stuff that followed would make more sense, “especially slow-mo, but the cameras for that are expensive, really bollocking expensive. But growing up in England I noticed all of the cameras they were putting up around the place, lots of CCTV, and I decided if I couldn’t have my own camera I’d use the ones that were up everywhere. So I hacked into them after a coupla tries, messed around a bit.”

“That’s it?” she asked, and he’d thought he’d explained it really well.

“Well, what you want,” he asked, waving his arms a little even as he tried not to, but it was a habit that he couldn’t help. The flailing was a good distraction for when he didn’t know what he was talking about and when he did it usually intimidated people into dropping the subject. “It’s like with anythin,’ start small and get away with it and keep goin’ till you get caught.”

“Have you gotten caught?” she asked, and she didn’t seem worried just genuinely curious.

"What you on about, wouldn't have a job if I'd been caught now would I?"

"What's the most impressive thing you've hacked then?"

He was saved from having to answer when his phone chirped in his hand and Michael's grumpy face lit up the screen. Not that he didn't want to, but he was torn between which story he wanted to tell. There was the time he'd hacked Buckingham's security feed and caught the Queen in her knickers, which had been scaring and he still gagged a little when he thought about it; but then there was all that shite he'd pulled from the government archives, but it took a certain kind of bird not to get scared off when you dropped conspiracy theory bait on them.

It was easier to smile and answer Michael's call. He couldn’t help remembering all of the times that he'd pissed Burnie off by slipping out of a question he didn't want to answer, at least Michael was giving him the excuse not to, that was much easier than getting a drunk Burnie to drop something. “Hello, lovely Michael,” he greeted.

He was surprised when he didn’t hear Michael immediately start yelling and, as he listened closer, he could hear him bickering with Lindsay. “I don’t want to talk to him, get that out of my fucking face.”

“Michael, it’s already ringing! It’s your fucking phone, Michael.”

“So you deal with him.” Michael sounded fussy, it would be easier to tell if he could actually see the pair of them but he was willing to bet they’d had an argument before they called or were in the middle of one when Lindsay decided to call him.

“It’s your phone.” Meg was looking at him strangely, probably wondering why he'd been on the phone for so long and not actually spoken.

“Fine, fucking fine give it here," Michael must have shouted that last part because Gavin could hear it clearly like Michael was actually speaking to him.

"Be at my apartment in twenty minutes." He ordered, "Do you need the fucking address or what?"

"Hello to you too, Michael, of course I don't need it silly boy, I've already got that and more."

"Of fucking course you do," and Michael did not sound the least bit amused, "just be there in twenty minutes numb nuts."

Michael hung up before Gavin could say anything else, he shrugged before pocketing his phone. He looked around for Meg who had disappeared in the thirty or so seconds he'd been speaking to Michael, she appeared in the doorway holding a GPS he didn't know he had.

She tossed it at him, and even with the soft way she lobbed it at him he almost dropped it as he fumbled the catch. "Put it in here," she said, "you are not giving me directions again."


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took forever and a day to write let me tell you. There will be a brief break after this because I am swimming in finals and paper due dates so I won't have much time to write until after, then we will be back on some sort of schedule.

Michael prided himself on his apartment actually being his home, not just some base camp he sometimes slept in. He actually had shit in there that belonged to him, fucking knick-knacks and shit, a book or two that he had tried to get into. It was nothing like when he had to pick up Ryan from his apartment and the only thing there were a bunch of blank walls; and maybe Ryan wasn’t the best example since Michael was almost positive no one actually knew where Ryan lived, just whatever safe house he let them know the location of.

The point was though, you could learn a lot about a person just from poking around in their shit, and there was a lot of shit to snoop through in his apartment. Something that usually wasn’t a problem since he only ever had Lindsay over, or Ray when he ever actually left his house, and the two of them knew him probably better than anyone.

As much as he prided himself on having an apartment that actually looked lived in, he was already pretty much an open book, at least that’s what he was trying to convince himself. That it really wasn’t a huge deal that he now had people over that he didn’t know, it was mostly a trust thing, and he was starting to trust Meg. He trusted her a lot more now than he did when he first met her, anything she might find in his apartment, and was willing to ask about, he’d be willing to tell her about.

Gavin, he was a whole different fight. But, if he found something he couldn’t find an answer for, after he tried to dive headfirst into whatever part of Michael’s life was available through his computer, well Michael would probably tell him what he wanted to know, after he finished yelling at him.

He didn’t see the point in keeping secrets, except the obvious ones; he was a criminal and he might have some more than friendly feelings toward Lindsay, being the big ones at the moment.

Now he had Gavin and Meg standing in his doorway, thanks in part to Lindsay. Gavin was grinning that stupid grin of his, blatantly scanning every visible surface of Michael’s apartment, probably filing away tiny things to look up later. Meg was standing beside him, and she at least had the decency to be a little more subtle about her snooping, probably because she didn’t want another freak out like she’d gotten when they first met, he felt a little bad about that.

“Be a good host, Michael, where can I put my things?” Gavin asked, gesturing to what looked like enough shit to stock a Best Buy.

Michael had offered up his own place without thinking. Mostly, if he was honest, because he wanted to get Lindsay used to staying in his building for an extended amount of time. She had thought he was kidding earlier when he said she could stay with him if she decided to move, but he really wasn’t. The apartment that had opened up was right next door to his, so if she took it they would be seeing a lot more of each other, or she could just move in with him and they could knock out that wall and take half the floor for themselves.

He didn’t really need a whole floor to himself right now, since it was just him, really Lindsay could move into his apartment now and they would barely notice each other, one of perks of an upper floor apartment is that they were so much bigger. He didn’t need the space he had now, just had the money to burn on rent month to month; and he’d learned from Geoff that you have to make a big impression when you first meet a person, and the fastest way to do that was with a big house. Geoff had made it clear he wasn’t leaving the game voluntarily any time soon, but he’d been hinting that when he did he thought Michael would be a good candidate to take over the Fake AH Empire. Michael thought of the extravagant apartment as an investment, it wasn’t as large as Geoff’s penthouse but it was still sizeable.

Sizeable enough where he could put Gavin, and the appliance store he came with, in his spare bedroom. Which left Michael's own bedroom and the pullout in the living room for people to sleep in. He didn’t have to ask Lindsay to know they would be using a rotating watch night to night, with Meg’s car exploding and Lindsay’s apartment being bugged they really couldn’t risk someone tracking them all back to his place. The question he did need to ask though, was did he need to find a cot or would Lindsay care to share his King sized bed with Meg. He’d take the couch because, fuck what Gavin said, he was a damn good host.

Michael wasn’t sure how long it would take Gavin to get all of his shit put together, he figured that he and Lindsay should probably start to build a game plan in the meantime, since they were the two who actually knew how this shit worked.

The second they walked through the door Lindsay had started making herself at home, she’d headed toward his kitchen and was now leaning against his counter staring out at him in the living room and nursing one of his red bulls.

“Have you considered murder?” he called out as Meg was disappearing into the guest room behind Gavin. Deciding that he should go ahead and run his Plan A by the rest of the group before he and Lindsay started making adjustments on it.

She bent back so jut her head was poking back through the door frame. “Isn’t that a felony?” she asked with a level of concern he was unfamiliar with.

“I guess,” he said, “what’s your point?”

Meg just shook her head before it vanished once again into the guest room. “I think it’s a valid plan,” he said looking at Lindsay to see if she agreed.

She shrugged, “Maybe, don’t know how you think you’d pull it off though.”

He leaned across the counter so that they were face to face. “What do you mean how would I do it? Like every other hit.”

She smiled like the condescending asshole she could be with this kind of thing. “Which is exactly why I said I don’t know how _you’d_ do it.”

He frowned, “I’m not having this argument with you again.” He couldn’t bring up murder without her reminding him how much better she was at it, he could have a perfect kill count to if he actually gave a fuck.

She laughed, “It’s okay Michael, no one’s asking you to be good at everything.”

“I’ll show you what I’m good at,” he said, a threat that didn’t make much sense or sound very threatening.

“Michael please, Meg and Gavin are just in the other room. Didn’t take you for such a voyeur.”

He knew she was teasing, that’s all they ever did was flirt and tease, but he could still feel his face heat up as he thought about the things he could and would do with Lindsay with the other two just a room away. He knew she could be loud, she had shared as much with him when she’d gotten a little too drunk after a bad break up, and it would likely bring the other two back into the room to investigate. Maybe Lindsay wasn’t that far off with that voyeur thing, the idea had him more affected than he’d like to admit.

“Fuck off.” He said, but his voice wasn’t nearly as strong as it should’ve been.

She smirked but couldn’t quite hide the surprise in her eyes as she realized that her comment had maybe hit closer to home than she’d intended. “As much as I think a hit would be much easier,” Lindsay said in a clear attempt to steer the subject back to work, “I don’t think that’s something Meg is going to be on board with. Or Gavin, but he’s at least more used to how this works.”

“Who cares if she likes it if that’s what needs to be done?”

“Your crew, needs of the many style brainwashing is admirable but I don’t know if she’s going to be able to handle any more blood on her hands.” She held up a hand to stop him before he could interrupt, “It doesn’t matter that it isn’t innocent, you didn’t see her face when she found that box on her table. I don’t know how much of this she’s really going to be able to take before she has a full scale panic attack. It takes a certain kind to really get into this work.”

“We’ll see what we can do, alright,” he said, he’d noticed Meg seemed a little fragile, tense maybe would be a better word she’d handled this situation a lot better than most would, but he didn’t want to cause the woman any unnecessary stress. “Gotta find him before we can decide what to do with him anyway.”

–

Meg followed Gavin into what she guessed was Michael’s guest room, she was still reeling just a little at the idea of his solution to their problem at hand being murder. She really shouldn’t have been surprised, and she didn’t think she was when she got down to it, but it still left a bad taste in her mouth. She was sure there was a better way to do this but she hasn't quite figured it out yet.

"We have to get close," Gavin said, half to himself, "we need to find a way to get at him."

Meg agreed, but how do you get close to someone like that. The Corpirate was paranoid to the point where he had found her source in the lowest levels of his shell company. He’d done that within a couple of weeks of her finding that source, he’d surely notice if they managed to get any closer than that much faster.

She reached for one of the boxes that Gavin had packed, hoping a mindless task like computer set-up would help her come up with a solution, the mindless activity hopefully mimicking the thing that happens when you take a shower and come up with a cure for world hunger.

Gavin was reaching for the crate at the same time as she was. There was that awkward second long pause, that she had always insisted didn’t have any meaning outside of rom-coms, as they did what most normal people do when this happens in real life, wait from their brains to finish buffering and catch up with what happened. There was plenty of stuttering and stuttered movements as they tried to figure out what they were doing. “I can handle this, Turney,” he said, “don’t need anyone minging things up with my set-up.”

“I think I can handle setting up a computer,” she said. Her tone said she was joking, but with an edge that warned him he might want to carefully rephrase whatever he was thinking about saying next.

He was either oblivious to the warning tone that all girls knew how to use, or he wanted to start another fight, strange given how they they’d been getting along earlier in the car as Gavin was telling her some of the more interesting things he’d seen while using the English CCTV cameras. “This isn’t some Dell you picked up at the store, taking it apart is one thing but putting it all back is another.”

She glared at him. What a dick, was her first thought, she didn’t know if he thought she couldn’t do this because of some sexist reason or if he just didn’t think she was smart enough to do it. “Like I said,” she repeated, forgoing the joking tone in favor of just being harsh, “I can handle setting up a computer.

“Oh really,” he said looking intrigued, she really thought he got some pleasure out of seeing how quickly he could piss people off.

“Well I built my own PC from the case up, I think I can handle plugging yours in.”

“Really,” he said now sounding even more interested, “what are the specs?”

“NVIDIA graphics card, two 8GB sticks of RAM, Intel I7 processor, MSI motherboard,” she rattled off, leaving out the majority of what was in her case in favor of rattling off some of the major components.

“Not bad, Turney,” Gavin said, and Meg kept herself from puffing up at the praise. She wasn’t seeking approval, she was proving him wrong, and she didn’t want or need some happy feeling because he approved of her tech. "Wanna set up these while I tune up this one." He motioned behind him to where a large desk took up the majority of Michael's guest room.

Gavin had beat her to the room by a few minutes as he left her to grab most of the stuff he'd brought with him and then she'd stopped to remind Michael about the legal issues of killing a man. In that time, he'd managed to get one of the three monitors he'd brought with him and one of the towers set up. She didn't know what fine tuning had to be done, other than turning the thing on; but she could put the rest of his stuff together, if he wanted to spend the time trying to remotely access Michael's browsing history, or whatever had such a weird look on his face.

He flopped down in an old desk chair, it tipped back dangerously and she watched with a smile as he flailed his arms around trying to keep from falling backward. He set to work after that, booting up his computer only took a few seconds, and she watched for a second as his fingers flew across his keyboard at impressive speeds. His chair was pushed far enough back from the desk where she could see that anything that was going to need a power source was going to need to be plugged in under there. She decided to save that step until last, she didn’t really want to crawl under the desk any more times than she had to, and moved instead to unpack the boxes and put together what she could.

Which meant the monitors went in first, there was a mumbled thanks from Gavin as he now had more than one blinking as he did some rapid fire hacking that she couldn’t really make sense of. Windows were popping in and out faster than she could register, she assumed he knew what he was looking for and couldn’t find it. That he probably wasn’t just pulling up random windows and closing them just as quickly

She had finally reached the point where she couldn’t avoid crawling under the desk Gavin was at, to power up the rest of the set up. He was getting fidgety, abandoned movements caused by hacking muscle memory said he was anxious to use the rest of the setup he was used to.

His legs were folded up under him and he was pushed far enough away from the desk where it was easy enough to slide under it. She had to give him credit, Gavin’s eyes didn’t leave the screen when she crawled under the desk, and she knew for sure her ass was sticking straight up in the air. After she plugged everything in, thankful that she had thought to grab that extension cord before they left, she slowly flipped around in the small amount of space she had so she could crawl back out. Which was when an idea hit her. “There has to be a way to get close without killing anyone, and if it’s there it would be somewhere inside the upper levels of his shell company.”

Gavin beamed down at her, where she was still kneeling on the floor, “Turney, that’s brilliant.” That’s about the point when they both realized Meg was in a position that was a porno staple. He didn’t blush, but his eyes did lock resolutely on the screen and refused to look back at her, even when she stood up and moved behind his chair.

His fingers were dancing across two different keyboards as the monitors in front of him flashed with a purpose. “What’s his shell?” he asked, movements pausing with a tension, like a bow drawn and waiting to be released.

“Black Flag Trading,” she said after a second’s thought, that’s what remembered being written across the copied expense reports she’d gotten. The pirate references so barely concealed she wondered how she didn’t notice it before and how no one had bothered to look into it before.

Really it was like the guy was a Batman villain, he had his Pirate thing and he was clearly going to run those jokes into the ground. Gavin seemed to agree as his hands stuttered across the keys, “Are you kidding?”

“I like to think I’m funnier than that,” she said and Gavin seemed to agree as he went back to searching for their in.

“This guy is a bloody ghost,” Gavin said after a few moments of searching. Meg would admit she didn’t know the first thing that needed to be done when you were hacking into someone’s life like Gavin was, she would also admit that from where she was watching Gavin’s progress over his shoulder by the time she focused on the words on the screen they disappeared again. That said, even when she was just googling something stupid she spent more than five minutes looking for her answer.

“What do you mean,” she asked, genuinely curious to hear about whatever process Gavin was going through.

He looked surprised as he turned to face her and she guessed he wasn’t used to people caring about anything but results when it came to his job. “Oh, um, well, we don’t we don’t have anything but an alias, cause it takes a right mong to name your kid Corpirate,” she smiled at the small joke, not that he could see her face.

“So,” he continued, “I can’t look him up like I usually would, so I checked his shell to see what name is attached to it and go from there. But the name attached to the company was an Edward Thatch.”

“Blackbeard,” they said at the same time with varying degrees of frustration, Gavin was relaying this from the point of already reaching this frustrating dead end and sounded more resigned than Meg felt.

“Right,” he agreed. He was sounding more excited than he had since she’d met him, now that she was joining in as he explained his process, “Thank you, Ubisoft. Since I couldn’t find him I looked into the company’s employee records, thinkin’ that maybe the CEO of the company would pan out, but the bloody CEO is Jack Calico.”

“Like Calico Jack,” Meg sighed, “god does this guy have no chill.”

Gavin chuckled, “So now I’m at a dead end, looked into both aliases on the off chance they’d lead somewhere and neither existed before five years ago, they hardly exist now.”

“So the only way to get near him is to get inside.” She was coming up with this plan as she was speaking, voicing her thoughts as they came to her, “Somebody has to know who he is, he’s not the Dread Pirate Roberts, and if anyone would know who he was it would be someone who was in the upper management.”

“That’s brilliant,” Gavin said, eyes wide as he turned sharply back to the computer, slender fingers flying again. “Oh this is top,” he cheered.

“What,” she asked leaning farther over the back of the chair to get a better look at the screen.

“There’s a level of upper level employees, they’re called the C-level according to what I’ve found,” he paused long enough for her to sigh at the pirate puns before continuing, “and there’s a massive list of people looking to be hired when a spot opens up. It’s all hidden under a ridiculous level of encryption, so it feels good that this could be our way in.”

“But how,” Meg asked because they had an opening, in theory, but it didn’t really matter if they couldn’t actually get in.

“I don’t know,” he said somehow waving her away without removing his hands from the keyboard, “still have layers and layers of encryption to dig through before I can even see names of people or how many people are on this C-level.”

“When you get through would you be able to replace a name or two with one of ours?” she asked.

“Yeah, probably,” he said.

She waited for a second to see if he would continue, he didn’t and she wasn’t sure if it was because he wasn’t really listening or if he didn’t get what she was suggesting. “If you could slip one of our names then if someone on C-level happened to…” She paused, she didn’t want anyone dead if she could avoid it, that’s why she was making this suggestion in the first place, “Happened to retire early, then we could slip in.”

It took Gavin a while to respond and Meg was trying not to think that it was because he plan was stupid.

When he did, he spun around quickly and she kept from yelping, barely, as she fell forward from where she’d been leaning on his seat. He caught her, barely, around the waist and as she looked up there was a wide smile plastered across his face.

—

She and Michael had been doing their best to come up with a plan, but all of their brainstorming brought them back to murder, increasingly creative murder but still.

If it wasn’t murder it was the two of them vaguely flirting, or maybe they were doing both at the same time. Murder and romance were kind of the same she figured; passion, the thrill of the chase, and it all ended with someone getting something sharp put in them.

She could see Michael getting frustrated as his eyes kept darting back to the closed guest room door, Meg and Gavin had been back there for a while but with all the shit Gavin had brought with him, she wasn’t surprised. Both he and Meg had walked into Michael’s loaded up with bags and boxes, and Lindsay wasn’t sure if any of them actually had clothes in them, or anything Gavin would need if he was going to be staying here for the course of the mission.

Michael looked seconds away from walking back and asking what was taking so long, he hadn’t contributed anything helpful to her planning in a while, when they heard Gavin’s voice ring out from the guest room all the way to where they were sprawled across Michael’s massive sofa. “That’s brilliant, Turney, I could kiss you.”

Michael’s face went suspiciously blank with that, and he sunk back down into his seat. Lindsay found herself wondering just what breakthrough Meg could have made to prompt such a reaction from Gavin.

Meg stumbled out of the room a second later with a blush high on her cheeks. Gavin followed right behind her, smacking his shoulder against the door frame as he tried to leave the room.

She saw Michael glance between the two of them and wondered if he was jealous or just trying to figure out, like she was, if they’d actually kissed. She thought they both seemed too flustered to have actually done anything, they were like two high schoolers who’d gotten caught with their door closed by their parents. They were both embarrassed by something that had clearly slipped out in the heat of the moment, now Meg sitting close behind Michael and Gavin was lurking behind Lindsay as the two of them tried to stay away from each other.

“What the fuck is wrong with you,” Michael asked looking between the two of them again.

They both shrugged by neither made any move to move closer to one another. Meg remained seated behind Michael, peeking over his shoulder at the rest of them. Gavin was still standing behind Lindsay by the arm of the sofa.

“You seemed pretty excited just a second ago,” she prompted, “any reason?”

Meg blushed again and Lindsay could feel Gavin shifting his weight from foot to foot nervously behind her. “I think I found our way in,” Meg said.

“You think,” Michael asked with unnecessarily harsh skepticism.

“There’s a group at the top of the company, I think that if we want to stand a chance of getting close to the Corpirate then it’s that way.”

“And how the hell do you suggest we do that?”

“I have to finish breaking the code so I can look at who’s workin’ there now and who’s up next,” Gavin said.

“Then we can put our names on the list so that we’re the next ones called,” Lindsay finished. This was exciting, maybe not the most cunning of plans right now, but it was simple and with some fine tuning it could work. Undercover work could be fun, she could be like James Bond or Jason Bourne or a female spy that probably didn’t have a movie because people had a problem with strong women.

Michael nodded approvingly, “Now we just need to find a way to get us in, and them out.”

—

Gavin walked away not long after they told Michael and Lindsay the plan. He locked himself in the guest room, prepared to stay there for the rest of the night. Michael and Lindsay, mostly Michael, had made it clear that they couldn’t make any progress until he broke through the list encryption.

Lindsay had helpfully added that even when he did it still might not matter, but they still wouldn’t know if they needed to come up with a new plan until Gavin did his job. “In other words,” Michael had said, “we’re all waiting on you so don’t take for fucking ever.”

And Gavin was really trying, but he’d been working on decoding for hours and had barely made any progress at all. He vaguely remembered one of the girls coming in, not long into his self-imposed exile, asking if he needed anything, he couldn’t remember if he answered.

Whoever it was came back later with a red bull that he would have definitely asked for and a couple of slices of pizza that he might have. His stomach made a strange gurgling sound and he looked up to find it was Lindsay who’d brought him the food. “We ordered take out,” she said unnecessarily since it was sitting on the table next to him,” you didn’t answer when we asked what you wanted so Michael said you were shit outta luck if you don’t like it.”

“Thanks Lindsay, he said, grabbing a slice and taking a bite.

She smiled and he guessed she was just happy he wasn’t going to starve. “Great, just so you know Meg’s in the bedroom next door, you can crash on the bed in here. Michael and I will be alternating watch and he’ll be on the pullout in the living room. I’ll be sharing the room next door with Meg.”

Gavin kept himself from saying anything, though the first thought he had was, ‘that’s hot.’

“Don’t kill yourself trying to break through this tonight, I know we said we need it done right away, and we do, but don’t,” she paused like she wasn’t sure what else she could say.

Gavin had turned back to the screen in front of him so he couldn’t see her face when she was saying all of this. She was being nice, but Michael had been right when he’d said that they couldn’t do anything until Gavin did his job. He knew that once he devoted his full attention to the job in front of him he’d tune out of the conversation quickly. “Thanks Lindsay, goodnight,” he said so she’d know he did appreciate what she had done, and so she’d leave and he wouldn’t have to feel bad when he started ignoring her to start hacking. She took the hint, and with a soft pat to his shoulder, she left the room pulling the door shut behind her.

That had been hours ago, he was pretty sure anyway. The apartment was silent except for the clicking of his fingers on the keys. He was starting to get frustrated and had run his hands through his hair so many times it was sticking straight up. It was taking too long to break.

Gavin hadn’t dealt with a code this difficult for something like employee records before, this was a level of security he expected for government secrets. With a rotating cypher and a key that changed every few minutes. He’d gotten close to cracking it a couple of times, only to have it slip through his fingers at the last second.

God, he could really use another red bull.

He was getting close, he could feel it. After multiple near successes, each more frustrating than the last, Gavin could feel the code about to crack. Just one more try, and if he didn’t get it, he would turn in for the night and try again in the morning.

Just one more.

Just one more, he was so bloody close.

One more, he almost had it with the last one.

He was half-asleep when he did get it, something he might find funny when he was awake enough to get the joke. He didn’t even notice he’d done it until he was muttering, “One more time,” to himself, already starting to type when he saw the list up and waiting in his side monitor.

“I got it,” he said softly.

“I got it,” he repeated louder this time.

“We are in business lads, cause I bloody did it!” he shouted.

He thought he heard the sound of Lindsay’s laughing, and what might have been a chuckle from Michael, after the man had finished loudly sighing.

He knew for sure that he heard Meg as she shouted back at him, “It’s three in the morning, shut the fuck up and go to sleep.”


	7. Chapter 7

“Let’s go over what we know one more time,” Michael said, standing beside a rolling white board that Meg had noticed an hour ago had LSPS written on its side. Now, it was all she could look at, since they’d gone over all of the other writing on the board a hundred times.

“Do we have to,” Lindsay asked with an over pronounced sigh, falling back onto the sofa like she was dying. Her head came to rest on Meg’s shoulder and she threw her legs across Gavin’s lap, apparently content to stay there.

“Yes, we do,” Michael said, “we’re infiltrating a major criminal organization we need to have our shit together or we’ll end up dead.” Meg didn’t flinch at his harsh words, not because Lindsay’s head was still nestled in her shoulder though that did help, but because, by this point, she’d come to terms with the fact that her life was constantly on the line.

“Sorry, Meg,” Michael apologized, still apparently feeling bad.

“Michael’s right,” Gavin said with a big yawn after the words. “I was up all night digging this shite up.”

“That wasn’t my point,” Michael grit out. “We need to know this shit so we don’t,” he paused.

“So we don’t die,” Meg filled the gap he left. She didn’t like the idea, but she wasn’t fragile. She had some idea of the risks when she started all of this.

“Right, so we don’t do that,” he finished lamely.

“So, who’s on first,” Lindsay said with a laugh.

“What?” Gavin asked.

“No, what’s on second,” Meg finished.

“Fuck off, Abbott and Costello,” Michael said, “we got a lotta shit to cover and a plan to finish.”

“Fine, buzzkill,” Lindsay said, and really they’d been going over the same stuff for the last hour could he blame them for getting a little bored. “Who are you stalking first?”

“Stalked, past tense,” Michael corrected with a smirk.

Meg smiled, Michael and Lindsay had been flirting pretty hard since this morning, a pattern they were continuing even as Lindsay had her head on Meg’s shoulder.

Lindsay had wound up falling asleep on the pullout after her watch, probably since she refused to let Meg take a shift on watch for some reason and had been up for hours longer than she should have been. At least if Meg had taken over, Lindsay could have slept in a real bed. She’d told Meg the night before they would share the main bedroom. Not that she cared that they were supposed to share a room, or that Lindsay hadn’t come back, she hadn’t given either a second thought when Gavin’s yelling had woken her up at 3am and Lindsay had still been out in the living room.

Meg didn’t care, but she was going to insist that she take a shift and Lindsay take the bedroom tonight. But only because the girl was practically falling asleep on her shoulder.

“Alright first guy is Mark Nutt,” Michael repeated.

“Maaark Nutt,” Gavin crowed.

“Right,” Michael said trying to look unimpressed but he had a smile he was fighting to hide. “He’s British, been working for the Corpirate for around nine months, but that’s all we’ve got on him.” He said reading off the sheet that Gavin had given them all that morning.

“Well that’s disappointing,” Lindsay said with her face somewhere in Meg’s shoulder, she wasn’t really looking down at her. But Meg had to agree, this was the second or third time they’d been reminded about how little they have on these guys.

“Right, well you try doing this,” Gavin defended, “half these names are aliases and the others are so far off the grid they make Ryan look like a reality TV star.”

“Next up,” Meg prompted, trying to keep things moving.

“Flynt Coal,” Gavin cheered.

“Who we also know jack shit about,” Michael said sounding annoyed.

“American, alias, worked for the Corpirate for almost a year now, and we don’t know much about him but he seems like a real mingy bastard.”

“Which tells us almost fucking nothing,” Michael said.

“There’s Addams, we know about Coal than we do Addams,” Gavin said.

“Yeah we know Coal’s first name,” Meg said.

“It starts with a P,” Gavin said with a defensive shrug.

“He might also be Spanish,” Michael added, mockingly.

“Do we know anything about anyone,” Meg asked, a feeling of hopelessness starting to creep in, what was the point of repeating the same things they had when it wasn’t very much.

“Were you not listening,” Lindsay asked and Meg could hear the grin in her voice, “we totally know that Addams’ name starts with a P.”

“Hey,” Gavin said sounding indignant, “we know a lot about the last guy.”

“Oh yeah,” Meg asked, “we have a first and last name for this guy.”

“Taylor Jones is the newest hire at only six months,” Michael said after he finished laughing.

“He’s new to the company and to the criminal thing, he’s messy,” Gavin said.

“Yeah okay, you keep saying that, but what does it actually mean?” Meg asked.

“Well he’s young, around our age.”

“Why does that matter, Gav,” Lindsay asked.

“Because I know how old he is,” Gavin said with a smile, like it was some big reveal.

“Yeah, so what’s the big deal?” Meg asked again, looking to Michael like he might have some idea, he’d actually read Gavin’s briefing sheet.

Michael shrugged and Gavin sighed falling against Lindsay, like them not understanding had taken the energy he had to sit up right.

“There, there,” Lindsay said with an awkward pat to his shoulder, one of her arms pinned by his body and the other was probably asleep from where she had been laying on it while leaning against Meg.

“Get to the point, Gavin,” Michael asked turning away from them to use the whiteboard he’d stolen from the public school system and writing down the limited information they had.

“We don’t even know Addams’ first name,” Gavin said like he couldn’t believe they were too stupid to get this, “and I know how old Jones is. It’s because he’s messy, he doesn’t know how to cover his tracks.”

“That’s great,” Michael said, “we still don’t know how we’re getting in, we kinda need a real plan.”

“The employee records showed that no one stayed for more than a year. They hire from straight off the list, half of these people don’t even work for the company before they get their call.”

“So get our names on the list and we’ll get rid of these people and get called in to fill the space.”

“We can’t get rid of everybody all at once,” Meg said thinking that this was a major flaw in their otherwise still pretty flawed plan.

“We’ll put a few days between each person,” Lindsay suggested. “It’ll take us days to find them and figure out what they need to get them to leave anyway.”

“Who’s going in first,” Gavin asked, “and more importantly who’s going out first.”

“It really makes the most since to get rid of the newest guy first,” Lindsay said.

“Does it?” Meg asked, “If Gavin’s already noticed none of them hang out for longer than a year shouldn’t we get rid of Coal?”

“But,” Gavin said, “Jones can’t keep himself off the grid, give me an hour and I can have his address, social, and mother’s maiden name.”

“That’s just gonna make it more obvious to the ones who’ve been there longer.” Michael said, “You literally have craft bastard written next to Coal.”

“Michael should go in first,” Gavin said changing the subject.

“Why,” he asked.

“Michael Jones, Taylor Jones,” Gavin said with a shrug like that was all the reason he needed.

“We are _not_ using our real names,” Michael said with a severity and finality that Meg hadn’t heard from him before.

“Of course not, you doughnut,” Gavin said, “we can use middle names. It’s not like anyone knows who you are anyway.”

“Except for me,” Meg said reminding them in case they forgot that she was definitely known by the Corpirate and his goons.

“You’ll go in last by that point it’ll be too late,” Gavin said matter of factly.

“You realize it’s not your life you’re putting in danger if you’re wrong,” Michael said, coming to Meg’s aid.

“Look, I’m puttin’ your names in minutes before he’d be set to call. Your names won’t sit so he can notice ‘em, and if Meg goes in last we’ll all be in ‘fore he has the chance.”

“And if we get that far, how long do you think we’ll be working here before we run into the Corpirate,” Meg asked not keeping the tone of accusation out of her voice.

“No way a place like this isn’t rigged with at least one camera,” Lindsay offered unhelpfully.

“Well I hope so otherwise you lot are going to be screwed in the first day or two if I can’t help you.” Gavin said.

“Help us?” Michael asked incredulously and Meg was starting to think they had lost track of the point. The point being, the Corpirate knew her name, and what she looked like.

“Don’t be a mong, Michael, you aren’t going to be fighty little Mogar. You’re going to need my help blending in.”

“Blending in, you barely speak English and you think _you’re_ going to help _me_ blend in.”

“I’m charming, Michael, you’re shouty.”

“And I’ll be dead,” Meg reminded them, “unless you’ve got a plan for those cameras.”

“We’ll put you in a brown wig, take off your glasses,” Gavin said like it was obvious, “I’ve seen your modeling pictures you’ll be unrecognizable from a distance.”

Meg didn’t blush, because she wasn’t ashamed or embarrassed about having modeled a little to help pay off the last of her student loans. She was a little pissed that Gavin had gone digging to find them, though she doubted he’d had to look for very long, she was wondering which ones he’d found exactly.

What she was a little embarrassed about, was the way she heard Michael and Lindsay react as she was saying, “You found my what?”

Lindsay had startled, head bouncing off of Meg’s shoulder and her voice mingled with Meg’s as she asked, “You were a model?”

Then Michael, who’s eyes were locked on Meg while he was clearly speaking to Gavin, “Modeling pictures?”

She didn’t look at Gavin, she didn’t want to see whatever look was on his face. He didn’t say anything, but even while not looking at him she could see his mouth moving in her peripherals. She was willing to bet that he was letting Michael know he had some of them saved, based on the light pink on Michael's cheeks when Gavin’s mouth stopped moving, it also meant that it probably wasn’t her cosplay shots he had saved.

“So Michael is going in first,” Meg said, very aware of how strained her voice sounded.

“We’ll have to get Taylor Jones out first,” Lindsay agreed, mercifully helping Meg change the subject.

“It is a weekend,” Gavin suggested, “give me twenty minutes and I can have everything we need to get rid of him and we can have Michael in by Monday.” They all paused consideringly and Gavin added, “Or we could have Vincent in by Monday.”

Michael stilled, and Meg could feel Gavin tense through Lindsay where he was still half-laying on her, and she was still laying on Meg. She wondered if he was preparing to run or getting ready to get yelled at. Michael just sighed, and she knew that the resignation surprised at least her and Gavin but Lindsay hadn’t reacted visibly. “Do you have my fucking social too,” he asked.

“Course not,” Gavin said sounding both relieved and pleased, “that would be an invasion of your privacy, lovely Michael.”

“And you would never invade someone’s privacy,” Meg added, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Right,” Gavin agreed, “now if you’ll excuse me lads, I’m going to find where Taylor Jones lives and try to get ahold of his financials.”

—

Gavin was back in the living room almost exactly twenty minutes after he left. Even with the mild annoyance he felt at Gavin knowing his middle name, and being able to rattle it off the top of his head like that, Michael still had to be a little impressed that Gavin had found whatever he was looking for exactly when he said he would.

He’d gone back into Michael’s guest room and that had pretty much ended their planning meeting until he came back. Normally, Michael would have dragged his ass back out until they’d finished coming up with an actual plan; but it looked like Lindsay was falling asleep as she was laying on Meg, and he thought a break wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

They had split the watch as evenly as possible the night before, or they’d tried to. Lindsay had taken the first shift, and Michael had dozed a little as they sat next to each other on the pullout; but they spent most of the time during her shift catching up. They hadn’t actually seen each other in a couple of months, between her taking more hits recently and Geoff had been working the crew harder as they tried to run more heists without enough people to run them.

They had alternated between Lindsay telling him about this drug lord she’d been sent after at the far north end of the state, who though he was some cross between Walter White and Don Draper. “With none of the charm, none of the talent, but all of the enemies,” she had said. She would talk about taking this guy out, and as she thought of them she would ask him questions about the heist they ran. Mostly she just wanted to know why they thought it was a good idea to break into the military base, apparently because Geoff had wanted to was not the answer she wanted. So she would interrogate him in the middle of her own stories, as new questions occurred to her, mostly things like “Did you at least get to take one of the new jets for a joyride?”

They had done that for the majority of the time Lindsay was on watch. It was nice to just talk to each other after they hadn’t seen each other in a while, and to do it while they were both sober, since they usually spent their time together getting drunk and gaming. They spoke quietly so they would hear any movement outside and so they wouldn’t wake up Meg, or Gavin if he’d gone to bed and wasn’t still up trying to open that damn list.

Lindsay had bitched at him for being mean to Gavin, but they couldn’t do shit until he broke through. He was pretty sure Gavin got that, the guy was a dick but he worked hard whenever Michael did a job with him.

They had just switched shifts, Michael had taken the second watch because he hadn’t been sleeping well the last few nights. He knew he’d be up most of the night whether he wanted to be or not, when his insomnia was acting up it was usually hell for a few days, he’d been surprised when Lindsay had told him he’d actually managed to drift off for an hour or so while she was on her shift. He’d taken the later watch because he knew he would have woken up early no matter what, and Lindsay had settled down beside him wedging a pillow between him and her head, she’d let him know she was staying out there because she didn’t want to wake Meg who’d also not been sleeping well the last few days. Insomnia was starting to seem like a fucking pandemic. Lindsay had just fallen asleep, he could feel her breathing even out through the pillow she’d put between them as he played through the stupid games he’d installed on his phone for nights like this.

Which was about when Gavin fucked it all up, shouting that he’d done it. It being his damn job. His excitement might have been a little infectious. Lindsay was laughing a little, after she remembered where she was and stopped reaching for her gun. Michael had sighed pretty loudly, and he hoped Gavin could hear it in the guest room, but he knew he’d laughed a little when he felt Lindsay’s elbow digging into his side. He’d laughed a lot louder when Meg started shouting from the back room, she apparently didn’t appreciate getting woken up by Gavin’s excited shouting.

Lindsay hadn’t really either, after Gavin’s three am wakeup she’d been up for the rest of the night, or morning or whatever. She’d spent the time playing on her phone, not really up for talking after being woken up so suddenly. She kept her head on his shoulder, silent except for the occasional huff of a laugh when she saw something funny on twitter, and she would tilt her phone so he could see it too. They spent the rest of the time sitting in comfortable silence.

The lack of sleep had caught up with Lindsay, who was now completely asleep on Meg’s shoulder. Michael was fighting it, as he could feel himself falling asleep for the first time in a couple days, the hour or so he’d drifted off the night before didn’t really count since he’d barely been out. It was nice, letting a warm sleepy feeling overcome him as he sat with his side pressed against Lindsay, her breathing soft and even, and Meg on her other side, quietly scrolling through her phone as she let Lindsay use her as a pillow.

Michael’s eyes had just slid shut when Gavin came back into the room, throwing himself down on the couch. He landed on top of Michael and knocked the breath out of him as his full weight came crashing down on him, bony elbows jabbing into his stomach. Michael groaned, tossing Gavin to the floor, not shouting at him because Michael really should have heard Gavin coming up behind him; and because Lindsay, who’d caught a stray elbow, was doing it for him.

“What the fuck, dude,” she groaned.

“Well, I was working and you pricks were all out here sleeping.”

“So you decided to fix that,” she asked, voice a cross between amused and wishing she was still asleep.

“Thought I’d join you for a cuddle if you were having a kip.” he said shrugging his shoulders and pretending that he needed to dust himself off as he stood.

“What’d you find while you were doing your job,” Michael asked hoping Gavin would get to the point, and he wouldn’t have to think about what it would have been like if Gavin had squeezed in on his other side. If the four of them would have spent the afternoon in a cuddle pile on his couch, or if they would have remembered everything they had to do and gotten back to work like they were now.

Gavin stood and took the spot Michael had been in earlier, taking the marker off the board.

The whiteboard was something Michael had borrowed from the public school when they’d been moving buildings a couple of summers ago. At the time he’d taken it just to do it, but he’d still been new to the area and it ended up coming in handy to plan his way into becoming one of the biggest names in Los Santos. Now he mostly just drew dicks on it when he got bored.

“Righto, so this bloke is in it. He owes money to ‘bout three different bookies ‘cross town, he’s late on his rent and he lives inna shit part of town. My bet, we give him bit of cash and a ticket out and we won’t see ‘im again.”

“We’re going to help him escape?” Meg asked, she didn’t sound upset like he expected; she just sounded confused, like she knew their plan should make sense but she couldn’t figure out what she was missing yet.

“Have him put in his two weeks with the Corpirate, he’ll be as good as dead anyway,” Michael said.

“That’s why we’re giving him a passport and a ticket out.” Gavin said.

“We’re doing what?” Michael asked, now feeling as confused as Meg.

“Yeah, he’ll never leave if he thinks the Corpirate will kill him for it,” Lindsay said, she was apparently on the same page as Gavin and Michael was starting to think he was reading the wrong book.

“Give him a way out and he’ll get rid of himself for us,” Gavin said.

“Really ‘cause it sounds like we’re getting ready to pay for his vacation. Where’s this money coming from anyway?” Michael asked.

“We’ll split the cost between the three of us,” Lindsay said, like they’d already decided.

“Four,” Meg corrected, already sounding like this was something she’d fight about.

“Can’t pull that much money from your account, they’ll probably be watching it,” Lindsay assured, “you’d totally be paying otherwise.”

She settled back down after that, apparently that was all she needed to hear, that she wasn’t getting special treatment or some shit. Michael was still trying to figure out why they hell they were paying for this guy to leave town. He said as much, “So I’m gonna pay to take this asshole’s job.”

“Well we all are Michael,” Lindsay said, like he was the one missing the damn point.

Gavin was the one who eventually figured out what he was getting at. “The guy owes thousands to at least three guys in the city, and those are just what I found without really lookin.’ This bloke’ll be out of the city and in debt, ‘fore we get the call sayin’ you’re hired.”

“You’re planning on a bookie taking care of this piece of shit,” he asked.

“He’ll get his kneecaps broken at least,” Lindsay said like it was important.

“It’s better than nothin,’” Gavin said, either reading his face or taking his silence as a sign of displeasure. “We can’t kill ‘im so let’s just send him away and let him do it himself.”

“Fine how long’s it gonna take to get a couple fakes made,” he asked. He figured it was just better to go along with the plan at this point, it’s not like there wouldn’t be plenty of murder with this thing. It was probably good they weren’t, Meg maybe had a point with the whole don’t need to kill everybody thing.

“Gimme an hour, I can have one made,” Gavin said.

“Really,” Michael couldn’t believe it, and Lindsay and Meg’s echoing voices said they didn’t either.

“Well it won’t be that good,” Gavin said rolling his eyes, “don’t like the bastard we just want him out of the country.”

“Do it then,” Michael said. Wondering why he was reminding Gavin to do his job when he’d done nothing but remind them of how much work he was supposed to be doing.

Gavin looked offended, “You’ve been going on about this plan of yours, thought you’d want to finish it.”

“Get the passport and shit ready,” Lindsay said, “you and Michael will go convince him that it’s a good time to retire.”

“Why us?” Michael asked. It made sense that he was going but he couldn’t figure out why she thought Gavin should come with him out of all of them. She’d said it like her word was final, so he knew there wasn’t a whole lot he could do to change her mind but he could at least try to figure out why she made it.

“Gavin has all the info and you’re,” she moved her hand up and down, pretty much just gesturing at all of him, “you.”

Gavin grinned, “Brilliant, Michael we can play good cop/bad cop!”

It wasn’t worth fighting over, Michael decided. Gavin could just stay in the car when Michael took care of things. It wouldn’t take long to convince this guy it would be smart to leave, he’d picked up a few intimidation tactics from Ryan.

—

Gavin wasn’t dumb.

He knew Michael didn’t want him coming to deal with Taylor. He knew that Michael hadn’t argued with Lindsay, well he wasn’t sure why he hadn’t, but he thought it was because he knew it wouldn’t do any good. Gavin was also pretty sure that Michael thought he would be able to scare and Gavin and Taylor into doing what he wanted them to.

Gavin couldn’t be sure about Taylor Jones, but Gavin wasn’t going to let Michael boss him around. Getting people to do what he wanted to do was something Gavin was good at, he’d learned enough about Taylor Jones that he was sure he could get him to agree to anything he wanted him to. But he’d have to convince Michael to let him come in too, so he could speak with him.

He’d just have to come up with a cheeky little plan to get Michael to agree to let him come. He’d have plenty of time to think of one while he waited for his special program to finish building an identity for Taylor. It was a sloppy thing, something he’d thrown together during a long weekend to see if it was possible. It built a background for an identity that Gavin came up with, made it look like they didn’t just spring up from nowhere. It used some quick and dirty tricks and it wouldn’t stand up to any amount of checking, but his fakes were good enough that no one would, as long as Taylor didn’t make an ass of himself anyway. The first one he made got him into a gala the President was planning on attending, no one had suspected a thing until he’d actually shown up, something about his dirty Converse had them thinking he wasn’t the son of a foreign diplomat.

He checked on the identity he had cooking. It was for one George King, a shit name that he’d come up with seconds before making the ID but he’d heard dumber sounding ones on the playground growing up. He could guess Taylor’s new name would be ready in twenty minutes, what was going to take the longest time was the printing. He was thankful that he’d thought to bring along his stuff for making fakes, his specially made printer wasn’t that large but it wasn’t something he usually thought to bring on a job.

Between printing and background, there was plenty of time to think of the perfect plan to make Michael think it was a great idea he was tagging along. Maybe he’d start with what a good job he was doing with the job he already had, Michael, or should he say Vincent, was already sitting at the top of the waiting hires list. He’d built much better backgrounds for the four of them than he was currently building for Taylor and he’d set all of their new IDs to print last night. Michael should get a call right after they convinced Taylor it was time to quit, no one in the Corpirate’s company should think to look at Vincent Jones twice.

"Just stay in the damn car," Michael said, not for the first time. Gavin's plan to remind Michael that he was good at his job hadn't worked so well. It had really just pissed Michael off as it came across like Gavin was saying that Michael wasn't good at his. Which he wasn't, he just wasn't so good with his words sometimes.

"But Michael, you need me to come with you."

"I don't need shit from you Gavin you've 'done your job,'" he said throwing Gavin's words back in his face, "now I'm gonna fucking go do mine."

"You can't just shout at him to make him go away," Gavin said feeling frustrated.

"You don't think I can be charming," Michael asked, and there was something strange in his voice that left Gavin shifting in his seat.

"I think you're lovely Michael," Gavin said wishing Michael would shout again, Gavin knew how to deal with a shouting Michael.

"But you don't think I can do this," he said. Gavin would not say that Michael Jones sounded like he was pouting, because if he said that it would probably break his brain.

"Well no, you could but," he started to say.

Michael smirked and things made sense in Gavin's world again, "if I can get you to agree with me, how much easier do you think it'll be to get this asshole to do it."

"At least take me in as backup you stupid Jersey bitch,” Gavin didn’t shout but his voice was raised. Was this what people felt like when it was him winding them up?

Michael looked shocked as he took a step back and away from the car door to let Gavin climb out. “Fine then Gavvers, you be good cop then, you sound even more ridiculous than usual when you’re yelling.”

Gavin was willing to take it. He was kinda getting his way, Michael wasn’t going in by himself, and that’s all Gavin really wanted. Michael was clever though, Gavin felt tricked with the way that Michael had managed pushed his buttons. But, it was something other than the anger he’d been seeing and something more like the crew member he’d met before he turned down the crew job. So he climbed out of Michael’s car and followed close behind him as he walked up to the apartment complex that Taylor lived in.

“How do you plan on getting in,” Gavin asked. He could hack his way into any security system you put in front of him but an actual lock and key was beyond his ability.

Michael looked at him like he’d grown a second head, “Through the door.” Gavin followed behind wondering just what he thought he was going to do to get through the locked front door. "Are you going to pick it?" He asked, unable to wait the minute to see Michael do whatever it is he was going to do.

"To get into the lobby," he asked and Gavin felt his face heat up at his tone, though he doubted it showed.

"Well the doors locked in it, how're you gonna get in then? Unless we're goin in through the window."

"I'm not climbing the fire escape to get in when the front door is right there," Michael said shaking his head. Gavin heard the muttered, "this is why you usually stay behind a computer," and he wasn't sure if he was supposed to. He couldn't decide how to take the comment and it stung a little but Michael’s tone wasn't any harsher than usual.

"Good luck getting in then," he said, he couldn't keep the bite out of his own voice even if he was pretty sure he wasn't meant to have heard Michael's comment.

He shrugged, if Michael seemed confused by Gavin's sudden hostility he didn't show it. "Whatever dude, we've already decided I'm charming as fuck."

Michael walked over to the list of residents of the apartment that was on the wall, he scanned it for a second before pressing a buzzer next to one of the names. The harsh buzzing sound filled their silence and Gavin, who couldn’t see the list over Michael’s shoulder, was wondering if he was just going to invite himself up to Taylor’s apartment. It wouldn’t do any good, Gavin had tracked Taylor through a couple of credit card purchases he’d made and he was downtown, or he had been half an hour ago. A tinny and annoyed sounding voice came out of the ancient looking speaker, “What?”

“Hi,” Michael said in a warm, pleasant voice that Gavin hadn’t even heard him use with Lindsay, “this is embarrassing but I left my key in my apartment, I was wondering if you could buzz-” The harsh buzzing finished Michael’s sentence for him. “Thanks,” he said using that same warm voice, but it had a tinge of Michael’s normal voice.

“What was that?” Gavin asked. He didn’t expect Michael to bloody narrate every step of the way, but it would be nice if he’d at least keep him in the loop. Gavin was starting to feel like a primary schooler, trailing after him.

Michael held open the door for him so they could both slide into the lobby of the building, it was a shithole and the flickering lights did nothing to hide how the building looked like it was falling apart. “I got us in the building,” was all he said, which was not the answer Gavin was looking for.

“Obviously, you mong, but how did you know that there would be anyone there? Or that they would even let us in?”

Michael sighed, and shoved the door to the stairs open with a little more force than was needed. “What, you wanna hear my fucking process? I’m not fucking Sherlock Holmes, I’ve just done this before.”

Gavin could tell Michael was getting defensive, but the lack of an answer made him want one even more. “So you’ve done this before?” Gavin had five flights to get an answer out of Michael and then the time it took Taylor Jones to finish his shopping.

“Sure, when I was a dumb Jersey bitch,” he said throwing Gavin’s words from earlier back at him, “broke into apartments and shit for fun. Places like this were the easy ones cause once you’re in you can get into any one you want.”

“So how’d you know the bird you buzzed would let us in?”

“She had a new tag, so she was new to the building and if she’s new and living in this shithole, she’s probably new to the city too. Since it’s like the middle of the day, on a Sunday, someone new to the city would be hanging around at home.”

“Alright, but how’d you know she’d actually let us in?”

“I don’t know Gavin, because nobody wants to listen to some guy’s sob story about being locked out.”

“What if she’d asked who you were,” Gavin asked, they were almost to Taylor’s floor but he was hoping he could keep Michael talking.

“It’s not like she could see me, Gavin,” Michael said, sounding frustrated and Gavin wondered if he’d maybe pushed just a little too far, if he should have just taken what Michael was willing to share. “I could have said anything, like I’m Taylor Jones and I live in 5C.”

As he said it they walked up to the apartment in question, he banged on the door once before Gavin could stop him. “What are you doing?” he asked checking the halls to see if anyone would come peeking out their doors.

He crouched in front of the door, plucking a set of picks from his pocket. “What are _you_ doing, no one is gonna come poking around. Have you ever lived in a place like this? Snitches get stitches here.”

“Shouldn’t we still watch?” he asked looking left and right, like a kid trying to cross the street.

Michael stood, turning the door knob and pushing it open with a smirk and a cocky eyebrow raised. “Sure, if you want to stay out here.”

“Bastard.”

Michael had insisted that they had to sit in the dark and wait for Taylor to come back. Something about setting the right mood, Gavin hadn’t really been paying that close of attention.

He agreed to let Gavin do the talking, at least to begin with, that he had paid attention to. “If you start to fuck up you can’t do it anymore.” Michael had spent the time they were waiting going through all of Taylor’s things, until Gavin had called out that he’d just used his card to pay for a taxi to the complex.

With all the lights flipped off and the blinds pulled, it was nearly impossible to see the two of them as Gavin sat facing the door Taylor would soon be coming through and Michael stood behind him. It would probably scare the shit out of him if he walked into his flat and found someone sitting there like this.

The door clicked as it unlocked and Gavin felt his pulse kick up in anticipation for what they were about to do. He felt Michael’s hand tighten on the back of the chair, the only sign that he was either excited or nervous about what they were getting ready to do.

The light flicked on, and Taylor Jones stared at them with wide eyes as he stood in his own doorway. “What the hell?”

Gavin kept his hands folded in his lap, he’d decided before this started that he was going to handle this like a Bond villain. Confidant and intimidating, but with plenty of class, it seemed like the best way to get Taylor Jones talking. “Have a seat, Mr. Jones.”

“Who in the hell are you two, and what are you doing in my house?” he asked in a frantic voice.

“You heard him, sit your ass down,” Michael ordered. He seemed like he was Mogar now, a subtle difference from what Michael was normally like, but he was following Gavin’s lead like he said he would. Everyone said that the Fake AH Crew was obedient until the last, though Gavin had been on the inside once or twice and it was more like until things got stupid or boring, and here was Michael proving it.

“Look guys, just take whatever you want. Just don’t kill me, my boss is an important guy, he’d find out and he wouldn’t be happy.”

Michael snorted, a soft but deliberate sound as he was now pacing the room. He ran a careful finger along some of Taylor’s things and as the man was now sitting across from Gavin his eyes still tracked Michael’s movements.

“We know who your boss is,” Gavin said calmly, also watching Michael as he walked a circuit around the room. Gavin wasn’t sure what he was doing, but he had agreed to let Gavin take the lead and so far he was sticking to his word.

“Then why are you here,” he asked with a shaky voice.

Michael was now standing just behind Taylor, the look he was sending Gavin had him thinking that Michael wasn’t that impressed with this member of the Corpirate’s staff. That and the fact that he mouthed, “What a pussy,” when he caught Gavin’s eye.

“We want you to leave,” Michael said menacingly, Gavin wondered if this is what he was like as Mogar or if he was channeling a little bit of Ryan.

“Did Freddy send you,” he asked looking between the two of them, “he said I had another five days to get the money.”

“I don’t think you understand, we weren’t sent by some two-bit bookie. We want you to quit your job and leave the country, Mr. Jones.”

Taylor laughed, something that was meant to sound brash and intimidating but fell short, sounding hollow and scared. “Fuck off, I’m not going to run because you tell me to.”

“We would like to do this the easy way,” Gavin said. He locked eyes with Michael who had moved from behind Taylor and was now standing beside him. Michael nodded and with one finger pushed a glass off of the table next to where Taylor was sitting. The man jumped as it shattered, “We can still do things the easy way, but my friend here wouldn’t have a problem if you wanted to do it the hard way.”

Michael made a show of cracking his knuckles, the popping a loud sound in an otherwise silent room. Michael grinned down at Taylor, a gesture that wasn’t much more than him baring his teeth at the other man. Taylor paled and he locked eyes with Gavin, refusing to turn back toward Michael. “I’d be willing to try to do things the easy way,” he said.

Gavin couldn’t roll his eyes because Taylor was staring at him like he was the only thing keeping Michael from killing him right now. Taylor was spineless, even if Michael was playing this part up a little bit, Gavin was surprised he’d made it this far in the Corpirate’s organization if he was going to roll over this easily. “Excellent choice, now I’ve got a new passport and a one-way out of here for you.”

He held the two up, making sure Taylor could see them and know that he wasn’t just minging about. Pulling them out of reach quickly as Taylor went to grab them, “Not until you call and quit. I’ll even give you a number for an offshore account, but only if you move quickly.”

The way he stumbled to dig his phone from his pocket was hilarious. Everything about the man said he should be intimidating. He was nearly a foot larger than Gavin and Michael, and he was built like a brick wall; but a broken glass and a few glares from Michael had him running like a bitch. If they were all so easy to get rid of, it would only take a few hours to tear apart the Corpirate. No wonder the list had been so heavily encrypted, that’s probably the only way to keep men like Taylor Jones from cracking under outside pressure is if no one is able to find them.

“There, I did it,” Taylor said after a moment, “now give me the stuff you promised.”

Gavin handed it all over. “It’s been a pleasure, Mr. Jones,” he said with a smile as fake as the new identity he’d just handed Taylor Jones. “I would pack quickly.”

They left the apartment with that, not much of a one liner, but Gavin could definitely see why Bond villains did it. Michael waited until he stood from the chair and was halfway to the door before following behind him, Gavin expected to hear another crashing sound but Michael followed without breaking anything on his way out.

“What a fucking bitch,” Michael said as the door swung shut.

Gavin laughed and Michael looked at him like he didn’t completely hate him, something he hadn’t done since they had started working together. It made Gavin smile. “We did it, boi,” he said excitedly, he felt a strange urge to wrap Michael in a hug but kept himself from doing it. He didn’t want to kill the mood by having Michael punch him.

“Yeah, you didn’t do bad, Free,” Michael said. He sounded like he was trying to sound annoyed but a smile that was ticking up at his lips gave him away.

Gavin was going to call him on it, cause Michael might not want to admit it, but he liked Gavin, or he was starting to anyway. Before he could Michael’s phone rang out and an unknown number lit up the screen. He silenced Gavin with a look and answered the phone, putting it on speaker so they could both hear. “Jones,” he said.

“Vincent Jones,” an automated voice said, “report to Black Flag Trading at 0800 hours, tomorrow morning. If you are not there at the desired time you will be removed from the list and the next applicant will be called.”

The call ended with a click, and the two shared a look. “Guess I should get ready for work,” Michael said as he started the car, and the two of them headed back to let the girls know what happened.


	8. Chapter 8

They’d all been up since the crack of dawn, trying to make Michael look ready to go to work. Something about barely finishing high school, and then starting a life of crime, had him not ready to pretend to be a young professional.

The three of them were all gathered in the living room waiting for him to come out for the third time so that she and Meg could approve of his outfit, since he apparently couldn’t do it by himself at twenty-seven.

Meg had caught him before he could leave, thank god she’d been on watch, because Lindsay would have caught it too, if she’d been watching, but Michael would have walked out that way if it weren’t for them.

Lindsay had been asleep in Michael’s room and had pretty much ignored him as he was getting ready, aside from poking her head out from her small blanket burrito to see just what time it was and wondering why he was getting ready so damn early. She decided on principle it was probably just better to let Michael do what he was going to do, and fell back asleep easily when she rolled over, thinking about how the pillow smelled like Michael and maybe just a little like Meg.

Which was who woke her up the second time, a loud insistent knock on the door. That she pushed open a second later, after she must have decided that there was nothing in the room that was going to scar her for life. It was probably good for both of them that Lindsay never saw the appeal in sleeping naked. She could hear sleepy complaining from Gavin as he pushed past Meg, who was blocking his door in the hallway, he must’ve been woken up by the banging too and decided that he might as well just get up with the rest of them.

“Come tell Michael he can’t wear his leather jacket to work,” she demanded, and Lindsay climbed out of bed with a sigh. She trailed behind the small red head who was stalking through Michael’s apartment, she looked like a woman on a mission and Lindsay was just glad she wasn’t the focus of it.

Michael was sitting at the counter with a red bull in front of him. He was hunched over and that, plus how early he decided to get ready, had her wondering if he’d managed to get any sleep after she left the night before. Meg jabbed forcefully at his shoulder but Lindsay was sure they both knew Michael was aware they were right behind him. He turned slowly in his seat, “Did you really go tattle on me, Turney?”

“You are going to work at a corporation, you can’t go to work looking like that.”

“Says who?”

“Anyone who’s ever seen how a business works?”

Lindsay watched the two argue, and thought it was a little like listening to someone argue with themself. They even turned to her at the same time, “Tell him/her!” they said.

“Meg’s right, Michael,” Gavin said before she could. His scruffy face poked up from behind the sofa, his hair wild from actual bedhead instead of its usual carefully styled mess. “You can’t go to work looking like an urchin.”

Michael threw his chair back with more force than necessary as he headed back to his room to change. He muttered under his breath as he went, “You would know, fucking Oliver Twist bull shit.”

Meg didn’t flinch as Michael pushed through her and Lindsay to get back to his room, even though he was grumbling and grumpy. She stood, back straight, and stared him down with a confidence unexpected from someone like half a foot smaller than him. Lindsay wondered if they’d just been having this argument long or if Meg had just realized Michael’s bark was hiding the fact that he was a huge softie. Meg turned her big hazel eyes on Lindsay with a broad smile on her face and Lindsay was hit by the sudden thought that she might do anything this girl asked her to. It’s a feeling that she’d only experienced when she was on the receiving end of one of Michael’s blinding smiles or, more recently, one of Gavin's smirking requests.

“Thanks for trying to help,” she said “he was being so fucking stubborn.” As she said it, her smile was broken with a yawn.

Stubborn, yeah, Meg would know all about that. She was only up now because she had insisted that she would take watch. Michael and Lindsay had both argued it wasn’t necessary, Gavin hadn’t made a move to offer to stay up but Lindsay was pretty sure he’d been doing it anyway trying to find anything he could on Michael’s new coworkers.

Meg had kept insisting, and during the course of the day she finally got Michael to agree with her, even if Lindsay was pretty sure he only did it to get her to shut up. Gavin had made it clear he didn’t care, but if he was picking a side it was to, “Let the bird do what she wants.” As far as Meg had cared, it was three against one.

Lindsay heard her alarm echo through the quiet apartment early in the morning, set because she correctly assumed that Lindsay wasn’t going to wake her up. Meg was clearly not a morning person, but she stumbled out of Michael’s room with a purpose. She shoved at Lindsay’s shoulder a couple of times until Lindsay finally gave up and went back to the bedroom to go to bed.

Michael had been using her as a pillow and grouched when he had to sit up so she could leave but Lindsay thought she saw him lay back down as Meg took her place, trading one body pillow for another without a problem in his half-asleep daze. Meg waved her off, still looking a little sleepy, that’s the only reason Lindsay could think to explain why her other hand started threading through Michael’s hair.

Now Meg was looking a little more awake, but that could have something to do with the coffee mug she was holding onto like a life line. She held out a second mug to Lindsay who took it with a smile. She took a sip and almost spit it back out, “Shit that’s strong.”

Meg shrugged, and nodded behind her to where milk and sugar were already sitting out. “Can’t even taste it anymore.”

Michael came back out looking unhappy, but in a pair of khakis and a button down shirt this time at least. Still not right though, at least that’s what Lindsay thinks and she knows Meg thinks it too. She’s pretty sure Michael probably knows it; and then there was Gavin laying down on the sofa ignoring the three of them, so there was really no telling what he thought.

“Still not right,” Meg said, and Michael looked frustrated.

“You’ll be able to see the line of your gun in those pants,” Lindsay added, a more practical reason than just not looking right.

It was good enough that Michael went back into his room with nothing but a sigh to show he didn’t want to.

“And put your glasses on,” Lindsay shouted as an afterthought, “you need to look more like a geek.”

“I’ve got fucking Ganondorf tattooed on my damn arm, you don’t think that’s enough?”

“You’ll have your sleeves rolled down,” Meg said, and Lindsay didn't think she was just making a guess, “no one will see your arms.”

“You need to soften up, Michael,” Gavin said, “You look like a criminal.”

“It’s almost like I am one,” Michael shouted back.

“You’ve known him for a long time, haven’t you,” Meg said quietly, now that Michael had stopped arguing. It didn’t really sound like a question but Lindsay couldn’t think of what else it would really be.

So she answered it like a question. “Yeah, pretty long.”

Meg just nodded. “He likes you,” she said after a few moments of silence.

“Yeah, I’d hope so, I’m his best friend.”

Meg shrugged, they both knew that wasn’t what she meant.

Michael came back out a minute later anyway. “Nothing suits me like a suit,” he said, “except body armor, I look damn good in body armor.”

The suit he had on was an old one, a dark grey, that was big in places and small in others, and he’d obviously put it on as a joke. “That’s perfect,” Meg said and Lindsay struggled not to laugh at how fast his face fell. “Do you have another one for the rest of the week? One that fits a little better?”

“No,” Michael said. Though it’s not like Meg knew why it was such a ridiculous question. Geoff was the only one on the crew who ever bothered with anything close to a suit. As their fearless leader, she guessed he thought it was a way of showing who was in charge, everyone else just wore jeans.

“And is that the only nice shirt you have? You wore it with the last outfit.”

Michael was starting to look like a kid getting lectured by his mom, which would be funny if Lindsay didn’t think she was going to end up on the receiving end of the treatment when it was her turn to get ready, the only dress she brought with her was Wonder Woman themed.

“The only one without blood on it,” he answered honestly.

Meg looked dismayed, and for once Lindsay was fairly certain it wasn’t because of the implication of violence. “So I take it that’s your only tie.” Michael nodded and she sighed, “That’s disappointing. You know you can do so much more with a tie than just look nice.”

That had the whole room’s attention as even Gavin bolted upright from the couch to look at her. Meg didn’t notice, she was standing directly in front of Michael, smoothing down the front of his suit and straightening the tie in question. “Really I’m kinda surprised you only have the one, with the kind of stuff you guys do. I mean I know you probably aren’t doing it in your apartment, but still. Ryan seems like the type to have ties lying around for their alternate purposes, I mean I didn’t meet him long but that’s just the feeling I get.”

Meg kept talking either not noticing the blush covering Michael’s face or ignoring it. As she spoke, she decided it wasn’t worth trying to straighten Michael’s tie and just undid it, her fingers moving quickly as she tied the knot and pulled it tight. Michael looked like he might have swallowed his tongue as her fingers brushed against his Adam’s apple, “There, that’s better.”

Michael just nodded dumbly, Lindsay wondered if he was thinking about the uses Meg had for ties, because she knew she was. Gavin was still sitting up on the couch and Lindsay thought he looked more like his brain had blue screen of death-ed. “What are your measurements,” Meg demanded.

“What?” he managed to choke out, looking like he was actually being strangled by the tie he had on.

“Your measurements, for your clothes, we’re going to have to go shopping to get you more shit if you’re going to be working for a week or two. People are gonna notice if you wear the same outfit every day.”

“Umm, medium?”

Meg actually looked a little angry at his answer, it was probably the first time she’d actually seemed angry this entire time they’d known each other, “Go, get out of my sight,” she said, “you’re going to be late and I don’t have time to fix you. We’ll have to go tomorrow.”

“What will he wear tomorrow?” Lindsay asked, her mind still a little stuck on the tie thing even now, and she kinda wanted to hear Meg say she had some with her.

“He can re-wear the jacket and pants, no one will notice him re-wearing those once, hopefully. I’ll try to get the blood out of one of his shirts and dig through his closet to find another tie. There’s no way you are in your mid-twenties and only have one, I won’t believe it.”

They all nodded, even Gavin but Lindsay was pretty sure he was just following their movements as his brain rebooted, bossy Meg was a force of nature. “But seriously though, you’re going to be late. Get the hell outta here.”

Michael jumped into action, moving to leave with a briefcase in his hand that Lindsay wondered why he had – since she knew it almost had to be empty and she had no clue why Michael would ever need one unless he was stuffing it with C-4.

“Michael wait,” Gavin said as Michael reached the door, he must have just caught up with the rest of them on what was happening.

“What Gavin?” Michael asked, sounding less frustrated with the man than usual.

He’d been like that since they’d gotten back yesterday though. She wondered what had happened to make Michael stop acting like he completely hated Gavin. All he would say last night when she’d asked him, over and over again, was “He wasn’t completely useless, now shut the fuck up and let me sleep.”

“Don’t forget your comm, Michael,” he said pressing something into Michael's hand. She hoped business people still wore those douchey Bluetooth headsets, cause that was the only way Michael would be able to get away with wearing a comm at work.

“Where’s the rest of it?” Michael asked, holding up something about the size of an earplug.

“That _is_ all of it, you mong. Borrowed the design from some government bloke and Dan 'n I built a couple to see if they actually worked. We can hear you through the vibrations in your face, or summit.”

“The vibrations in my face?”

“Like when you speak you can hear yourself, it’s cause of vibrations innit, but when you plug up your ears you can still hear your voice rattlin’ around in your head. It’s cause of different vibrations than the bones in your ears.”

“So you’re sure this is gonna work?”

“Course I’m sure, it’ll work. I said it would didn’ I,” Gavin stubbornly insisted.

“Whatever dude, if I die it’s on you.”

Michael put the little comm in his ear and walked out the door as Gavin cried out, “Don’t say that, Michael!”

Lindsay was pretty sure she could hear him laughing a little through the door.

—

“Michael, can you hear me?” Gavin asked, his voice soft but clear in Michael’s head. “If you can hear me, scowl at that ATM at your left.”

Michael was walking because he’d realized in his garage that he couldn’t drive to work. When all of his cars had a 00M0GAR plate, he wasn’t going to be able to drive and stay undercover. So he had to walk like a fucking asshole.

Gavin must have been tracking his walk down the street because as Michael turned there was an ATM beside him. Which was pretty fucking creepy knowing Gavin was watching his every move, that anyone with Gavin’s skill level could.

There was a line of ATMs so he wasn’t sure which one he was supposed to look at, but he picked one of the ones in the middle and glared. “I can hear you loud and fucking clear,” he said keeping his voice down so the people walking beside him on the street wouldn’t think he was a damn wackjob. Los Santos had more than their fair share of psychotic murders, but run of the mill crazy people weren’t as common here as they were in Jersey. People noticed the guy talking to himself here.

Gavin laughed, Michael didn’t really get why Gavin got such a kick out of him getting upset, but he always laughed even when that rage was directed at him, maybe he'd figured out that most of it was just for show. “This is top!”

Michael smiled and continued to walk toward where Gavin had told him the Black Flag Trading building was supposed to be. Gavin kept talking and Michael was trying to get used to hearing his voice, or any voice, in his head and not being able to see them as they spoke. The comms made his voice sound clear like Gavin was walking right next to him, right on top of him really, and sounded totally different than if he was hearing a voice through the phone.

He would look beside him every now and then, Gavin had been talking pretty much nonstop since Michael confirmed that he comms worked. “This is top, Michael, I wasn’t sure they’d work from this far away. I mean I knew they’d work, I have tested them before, just haven’t tested the range.” Michael kept thinking if he turned he’d see Gavin walking next to him, explaining with small gestures and then waving his arms around as he tried to explain away a mistake before he could get called on it.

He kept expecting to see it, but all he found when he turned his head was a bunch of random people who looked at him like he was fucking crazy when he made eye contact with them. It might have something to do with the smile that was tugging up at the corners of his mouth as he turned to look at them, looking for Gavin but finding them instead.

“You’d tell me if you couldn’t hear me anymore, right Michael?” It took him a second to figure out the question and just how he’d do what Gavin wanted him to, and the delay was apparently too long, “Michael, Michael?” came his increasingly worried voice.

“Yes Gavin,” Michael said as quietly as he could and still be heard, “I’ll let you know when I can’t hear your stupid voice anymore.”

He heard a huff coming from the other end of the line and just as he was wondering how strong these mics were, he heard Lindsay and Meg both speak, “Is he okay? What happened?”

“Are they wearing comms?” he asked hoping it was loud enough to be heard over the questions coming from the girls.

He didn’t answer Michael’s question right away, neither did the girls which was kinda an answer in itself. “Michael was just being a mingy spaff and ignoring me, no one’s dead yet.”

There was a long silence and Michael thought about asking his question again, or asking how much the comms could pick up from the people around them. “Stop giving me that look. Michael did it, and he can hear you so these things are better than I thought. I’ll find my other two for you to try.”

He could faintly hear Meg’s “Ooh!” and it fit in a way Michael didn’t know why he was so sure of, that she was the kind of person to get so excited about any kind of new tech to play with.

“Michael, it’s almost eight, hurry up,” Lindsay shouted and it had Michael wincing so she must have been yelling right beside Gavin’s head.

“He’s almost there, Christ he could hear you from over there you don’t need to shout.”

Michael hadn’t even noticed the time, 7:56, or how close he was to the building, only a block away. Gavin must have still been tracking his trip over, even when he was worried that Michael couldn’t hear him anymore, or maybe he did it even more because he was worried Michael couldn’t hear him.

Michael started to walk a little faster if there was one thing he was sure about with this damn Corpirate bull shit it was that if he showed up late he wouldn’t be going through the door. He moved faster but was careful not to break a sweat.

Meg had made it clear, when he had to change three times before she let him out the door, that Michael didn’t know how to dress himself for a professional job. He did know that he was going to look like a dick if he walked through the door looking like a sweaty sack of shit.

The suit was thicker than his leather jacket and it left his shirt sticking to the small of his back now as he pushed open the door to this dumbass trading company. He walked into an empty lobby where a large empty desk filled the back wall. There were two elevators, that sat in the middle of the side wall, but the rest of the wide space was empty except for the tile flooring.

The large empty desk had a bored looking woman sitting behind it, seated right in the middle of the fucking huge thing. Her brown hair fell in her face as she stared down at a magazine on the desk. She raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow at him as she noticed his walk to the desk, and he pushed his glasses up his nose from where the thin sheen of sweat he couldn’t avoid had let them slip down. He could feel them sticking to his face in the way glasses do when you’re sweaty as she stared him down in this weirdly nice lobby area.

For the first time since high school, it made Michael feel awkward and out of place, he had this weirdly hot girl staring him down in a building he didn't belong in, while he was wearing a suit he didn’t like. It was like she could sense his discomfort, like a dog could smell fear. Watching him with sharp, dark eyes, like a shark, under perfectly shaped brows with winged eyeliner, sharp like knives. All of it sitting on a face that came from a surgeon more than it did god; and these were things that he was noticing because he spent too much time with Lindsay. Since she was full of shit and thought a nice ass wasn’t enough reason to think a girl was hot.

“Well, she’s a fit bird,” Gavin said, his voice coming so suddenly that it actually startled Michael.

He looked around as subtly as he could to find the camera Gavin was watching them through. It was met with a laugh that said Gavin noticed, but Michael did find the camera he was looking for blinking quietly in the corner. “It’s 7:59, are you going to stand there forever, boi?”

“Shut the fuck up,” Michael said, barely moving his lips as he glared up at the corner.

“You’re still the prettiest in the room, love. Don’t let the big bad secretary scare you away, you’re going to lose your job.”

Michael had crossed his arms across his chest as he’d been standing in the lobby talking to Gavin, but now he set his shoulders and walked the rest of the way to the desk. “Vincent Jones,” he announced as the only other person in the room she had to be his way into C-level.

“ID,” she asked in a bored voice.

“Gavin sucked in a breath so loud that Michael could hear it, and he was a little worried this girl could too. “Shit, bloody,” he could hear the crashing as Gavin knocked things from his desk. The idiot was looking for Michael’s ID.

Maybe not such an idiot, Michael thought, since he’d grabbed them from Gavin's desk when he’d gone to change. But he still wanted to roll his eye as he pulled his wallet from his pocket, because it hadn't even occurred to the asshole to give him his new license before he walked out the door.

He flashed the freshly printed ID at the girl with a smile that only broadened when he heard Gavin's whispered, “Bastard.”

She barely even looked at what he was showing her, glancing at it with a bored expression and then shifted that same expression up to his face. “Here’s your card, it’s the only thing that makes the elevator go to your floor, don’t lose it,” she somehow managed to say all of that in a sigh, words falling from blood red lips like she couldn’t say waste the energy to actually say them.

He took the card from her hand, “Thanks.”

She sighed again, “Welcome aboard, matey.” If Michael thought she hated what she’d said before she probably would have rather died than say what she’d told him.

And because he was a piece of shit he made sure to wink and say, “Aye, aye,” as he moved toward the elevator.

He actually thought for a second that she might decide it was worth the effort to stand up and kill him. The elevator came before she could stand, since he wasn’t anywhere near it and couldn’t find a button to call it if he’d wanted to, she must have called it before he pissed her off. He saluted as he climbed in because he was trying to make his week or two here miserable, apparently.

The elevator wall was buttonless with a small space for him to sip in the card he’d been given by the girl at the desk. He couldn’t even find a panel or a door to open so that you could pick what floor you needed or call if you got stuck. He hadn’t seen a door leading to the stairs in the lobby either, now that he was thinking about it. “If this place caught fire, everyone in it would burn.”

“Jesus Michael,” Gavin muttered, “that’s a bit morbid innit.”

Michael shrugged even though he didn’t know if Gavin could see it, “Maybe, but it’d be a good way to get rid of evidence. Blow this fucker up with everyone inside.”

Gavin went quiet, but Michael could almost see the wide eyed stare that he got when one of them said something super creepy. He’d worn it a lot the few times he’d worked with the crew, usually when Ryan was talking, but Ryan’s sense of humor leaned toward the dark side.

Gavin’s silence was a good thing, because Michael wasn't sure he could have appreciated what he was walking into if he had Gavin’s commentary in his ear.

The elevator opened into one massive room. It was wood paneled, but not like the walls of an 80’s basement, it was more like the inside of a big, old ship. As soon as he stepped out of the elevator, he was just a step away from a round, wooden table that filled most of the room.

Three men were already sitting around the table and they were all staring at him as he stood in the closest thing to an open doorway as he could get in here. The doors slid shut behind him and there was no sign that it had even been there except for a small, almost unnoticeable, slot to stick his card in. There was a chair open right in front of Michael and under three sets of eyes Michael slowly sunk down into it.

“You’re late,” the man to Michael’s left said. He was stick thin with cheekbones that looked like they could cut glass. He had a sharp and pleased smile on his face like it thrilled him that Michael had managed to fuck up before he even walked through the door. It made Michael hate him already, him and his stupid slicked back black hair.

“He did have to go through Foxy to get here, leave the boy alone on his first day, Coal,” the man to his right said. He was broad chested and dark skinned, Michael remembered from Gavin’s bio that Addams was probably Spanish, it would fit with the guy to his right. His dark hair as long as Ryan’s when he tried growing it out to seem scarier (but his was loose around his shoulders while Ryan had kept his pulled back) and he had a thin, black mustache that actually worked on him instead of making him look like a teenager who couldn’t grow facial hair.

Since Addams was on his right and Coal was on his left that meant the man sitting across from him was Mark Nutt. He was forgettable, he looked like someone put all of his custom character sliders in the middle and called it a day. Brown hair, brown eyes all on a face that Michael felt like he’d seen a hundred times before.

“So, new guy, what’d you do to get here?” Coal asked. Michael felt like Coal was leering at him, but it wasn’t like when Gavin did it, and he felt like he just wanted in his pants, this felt like he was being toyed with.

“Vincent, not new guy,” Michael said since it was the only thing he could and not immediately blow his cover.

“Alright, Vinny, what did ya do to get hired?”

Michael looked straight into the camera across from him and Gavin laughed, “This isn’t the office, Michael.”

Michael was about to ask if that meant he could kill Coal and be done with it when Addams said, “Leave the kid alone and get back to work, Coal.”

“What work, goody-goody, boss hasn’t brought us anything in a week.”

“If you can’t find something to do, to occupy your time, then maybe you shouldn’t be here.”

Coal smiled and turned away from them, but Michael had been in the business long enough to look at what it looks like when someone has murder in his eyes.

“Thanks,” Michael said.

Acting polite because he had Gavin in his ear telling him to be, “Don’t piss him off, Michael. He’s the only one that likes you and we need to know what’s happening. Don’t be yourself.”

He would have just told Gavin to shut up, but talking to himself didn’t seem like a good idea. “Don’t worry about it, he’s pissy because he’s been here so long.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Michael asked, ignoring Gavin who kept shouting a bunch of shit about being some submissive bitch to keep him in Addams good books.

“Well my boy, you’re a reminder of our short lifespan and Coal has been here the longest of all of us. You are a physical reminder that his time is limited.”

“So, Foxy is the girl downstairs?” he asked, changing the subject.

“More predator than woman, but yes. She’s the only one here who will still be around when the company goes under, other than the boss of course.”

“Ask him what you’re supposed to do, Michael,” Gavin said.

Michael stared directly at the camera facing him, hoping that Gavin would get some idea of why he thought that was the dumbest idea he’d ever heard. Because Michael was sure if he started to talk, he wouldn’t be able to stop. Starting with that being the fastest way for the three people next to him to figure out he shouldn’t be there, and ending with there were cameras everywhere to show some fucking big brother asshole exactly what was happening here and he didn’t need to get killed.

He looked over at Coal, who’d started to work on something after getting snapped at by Addams and found the guy already staring at him. Everything about that guy creeped him out. Gavin had called him a mingy bastard, and Michael wasn’t sure what the fuck mingy actually meant but he _was_ creepy as fuck. The murder face that Ryan had perfected was almost sweet compared to the look Coal was sending him now.

“How _did_ you get your job?” Mark asked after they’d sat in silence for long enough that it was starting to make Michael’s skin crawl.

“Well he’s a posh sounding dick,” Gavin said, sounding annoyed. Michael couldn’t tell the difference between the two accents, and he was pretty sure that’s what Gavin was talking about.

“How’d you get yours,” Michael shot back at Mark.

The room was silent for about half a second that had Michael’s fingers twitching toward the small of his back where his gun was hidden. Then Addams was chuckling and the tension left, as much as it ever did in a room full of people that looked like they hated each other. “Keep an air of mystery about you,” he said, “that’s the way to keep yourself here.”

“God knows the last fuck up couldn’t manage,” Coal said.

“Oh yeah?” Michael said, forcing himself to sit still and not fidget in his seat.

“Came in on the first day bragging that he took out a mule for one of the rival dealers, and it was why he was here.” Mark said.

“It was just a matter of time before someone got him to quit,” Addams agreed.

“Got him to quit,” Michael asked. Hoping they couldn’t hear Gavin chanting swears, some that even Michael thought were creative, in his ear, “he didn’t just leave?”

“No one just leaves,” Coal said, “we are the controlling party of the largest criminal empire in the city. You don’t just leave.”

Michael could actually see the crazy in this guy’s eyes. The gleam in his grey eyes made it look like he was watching them all burn in his mind.

Gavin said what Michael was starting to think, “He’s not going anywhere alive is he?”

Michael gave a small shake of his head for Gavin and Coal must have seen it. “Do you disagree, Vinny?”

He should really learn to filter what he has to say or learn that it’s okay to not say anything at all sometimes. “Well it would be the Fake AH Crew, that’s the biggest in the city right?”

When Michael thought about what would happen when his life flashed before his eyes, he always kinda thought it would have a lot of sex and explosions. When it actually happened, as he watched Coal reach for some hidden weapon and he was reaching for his own, he saw a lot less sex than he thought but the number of explosions was about what he thought. Really it was kinda disappointing.

“Why don’t we break for lunch,” Addams suggested with a glare aimed across the table at Coal, “we’ll all meet back here in an hour and we’ll go over business.

Michael stayed in his seat until after Coal had gotten up and was disappearing inside the elevator with Mark, because while he wasn’t sure what floor he was on he was sure the time it would take to get to the ground floor was enough time for him to get shanked.

When he did get up, Addams reached out and grabbed his arm. He fought his first instinct to rip his arm away from the person who’d grabbed him and looked down at Addams, who was still sitting.

“It’s your first day,” he said, “so that slip of the tongue won’t be considered mutinous by anyone but Coal. Better watch yourself though, kid, or you’ll be the next one ‘quitting.’”

Michael nodded and Addams let go of his arm, he figured since they were alone in the room now would be a good time to figure out the best way to get rid of hm. “Why do you think he quit? I mean Coal seems like he’d die before he’d leave, but this guy just didn’t care anymore.”

“Taylor was very proud of what he thought he could do, and he didn’t know when to give up. Both decent enough traits that most of the people that work here have, but Taylor Jones used the two to develop a gambling addiction.” He said that last word with a sad disgust, like it made him sick to think of that waste of potential.

“So you think that’s why he left,” Michael asked, sitting back down as he carefully tried to lead this conversation where he wanted it to go. He wasn’t sure if it would work, he’d never tried to do it like this. He was usually just fucking around while he tried to get Geoff to admit he knew what Pokémon was or stupid shit like that.

“I think that’s why he was able to get the job in the first place. As to why he left, I think he was never able to keep his mouth shut when he should have and was frightfully weak willed when things got difficult. Anyone who wanted him gone, must have given him a ticket to somewhere else and shouted until he agreed to leave.”

Michael smiled a little, he wasn’t that far off, but Michael thought Gavin had been a little more like a villain from an old spy movie. Gavin had been a lot more quietly scary than Addams seemed to think it would take to get rid of Taylor Jones, but Michael had been there to do the shouting so who knew what actually scared him away.

“What would it take for you to quit?” he asked, hoping it seemed like a question he’d just come up with, the step that made the most sense with where their conversation seemed to be heading. “Or are you planning on going down with the ship?”

He huffed out a small laugh. “Maybe at first I thought I would, but what they don’t tell you at the start is how much this job weighs on you. It is rare that I share this much with anyone,” he said like a warning, “so please don’t confuse my tired apathy for thinking you are in any way trustworthy, but I think now I would be tempted to leave if I was given a way back home to Spain.”

He stood up and Michael knew he wasn’t getting anything else from the man, and he wasn't sure he needed to.

Gavin’s happy chattering said that he didn’t anyway, “One ticket to Spain, easy enough. No clue how we’ll get rid of the rest of ‘em but if we send the girls to convince him to go I don’t know if I’d want either of them near Coal. He’s a bit of a creep.”

Michael agreed, he couldn’t say it out loud in the elevator with Addams, but if they was sending the girls to deal with the next guy he would prefer if it was pretty much anyone but that fucking dick Coal. He was sure that Lindsay could handle herself against Coal, she was a total badass and he knew that, but he really just didn’t want either one of them near him. If it didn’t sound so fucking ridiculous, even in his own head, he’d say the instinct felt possessive, or at the very least protective. Even if he was getting to the point where he was pretty damn sure they weren’t going to be able to get around killing Coal to get rid of him.

He was ready to change pretty damn sure to fucking positive when he climbed out of the elevator and locked eyes with Coal where he was leaning behind Foxy at her desk. The two of them had evil in their eyes as they followed him out the door with their gaze. He was convinced the only reason Coal didn’t attack him was because he walked out with Addams, but he did wonder if he had holes in his jacket now from their staring.

They separated at the front doors as Addams went for lunch and Michael deliberately chose the other direction so he could talk to Gavin. He pressed his phone to the ear opposite of the comm so he could talk without drawing as much attention to himself, something that Gavin apparently found funny.

“What’re you doin,’ you dope?”

“Trying to talk without looking like a fucking psycho.”

“Fair enough,” he said.

“I think this is going to be more dangerous than we were planning.”

Gavin hummed consideringly, “On a scale of one to Australia, how dangerous are we talking?”

“What the hell kind of question is that? I don’t fucking know, Germany.”

“Wot?” Gavin squawked and that sound seemed to be louder than any other through the comm.

“It’s your dumbass scale,” he answered before trying to explain a little, “it’s fine now but there’s a long history of violence.”

Gavin laughed, and even without seeing him Michael knew it had bubbled out of him because he was so thrilled Michael had used his stupid fucking joke scale. Michael couldn’t figure out why he was smiling like a jackass when he caught sight of himself in a store window.

“You think we need to change the plan then?” Gavin asked and Michael got the strange feeling that Gavin was already trying to come up with another plan just so he wouldn’t be in as much danger.

“Nah, once we get through the day the hard part’s over.”

“How you gonna go over business when you don’t actually know what you do?”

“You decided yesterday it was your job to help me blend in,” Michael said with a grin that he hoped Gavin could see, “you’ll figure it out boi.”


	9. Chapter 9

Michael had been working for Black Flag Trading for two days now, and tensions were running high in his apartment to say the least.

“When is someone else going to be coming to help me, I am losing my shit over there by myself,” Michael complained early that morning. The four of them gathered around in his kitchen like they had every morning, with their breakfast in hand.

“You’ve been working for two days,” Lindsay said looking at him over the edge of her coffee mug, “and you haven’t even done anything.”

Which was very true Meg had sat in with Gavin yesterday to see what went into watching the cams, and to settle the weird nervous feeling she got in her stomach when she thought about Michael working there. Gavin had the feed for the two cameras in the main room pulled up on his main screen and kept his attention on the camera that focused on Michael’s face; his eyes darting away every now and then to the second screen where some crawler was running in the background.

He spent the time Michael was in the room trying to get him to crack, it was like watching American tourists trying to get reactions out of the royal guard. In the time she sat in there with Gavin, he had asked Michael no less than four hypotheticals and started a new game.

Michael had a surprisingly good poker face. Surprising because she’d been living with him for less than a week and had figured out he was trying to hide a massive crush on Lindsay – and maybe Gavin too but that one she wasn’t sure of yet – and how easy it was to get him blushing – not that weird since he was as pale as she was almost.

But as Gavin was sitting in the darkened guest room asking Michael, “What if your legs didn’t know they were legs,” Michael made no sign of even hearing him. Well no sign that anyone sitting in the room would notice. Anytime Gavin would say something he found dumb he would stare straight into the camera or if he couldn’t do that, because someone in the room was actually paying attention to him, he’d clench his jaw and roll his eyes. Either way, she could still tell he was smiling as he was trying to act annoyed.

When Gavin came up with his new game, Michael had been at lunch and Gavin had just been showing her how to switch between CCTV security feeds and the smaller ATM camera feeds so that she could follow them through the city. “How would you explain this to a caveman?” he asked.

“Explain what?” Michael asked.

“Camera tracking, hacking, this,” Gavin said gesturing in front of him even though Michael was the one asking the question.

“So fucking dumb,” Michael said.

But Meg kinda wanted to play along. “Okay,” she said, “we take a special box and use it to follow a person through other machines-”

“What’s a machine,” Gavin interrupted.

Michael sighed as Meg tried to fix her mistake, “Oh, um, a machine is another box that, uh, is made of little metal parts and can do different jobs.”

“What’s metal?” Gavin asked.

“They would know what fucking metal is,” Michael said, sounding annoyed.

“If they knew what metal was they’d’ve used it wouldn’t they. They made weapons out of rocks and shit.”

“If you can mine it by hand in Minecraft they knew what it was, new rule.” Michael said.

“You can’t just make up new rules to my game, Michael.”

“No,” Meg said, “I agree with Michael, cause I mean we’d have to explain everything. Like why they understand us speaking English and what English is.”

“Fine then, you're making the rules you do it.” Gavin said, and Meg wondered if he knew he was pouting at someone who couldn’t see him.

“You know how you can see people from far away, it’s a special wall that lets you see them from even farther away through special eyes,” Michael said.

Meg could see through the cameras that Michael was starting to pull in on himself the way she had noticed he did when he wasn’t sure of what he was saying or if he felt stupid saying it. “Michael wins,” Meg said and smiled as his posture visibly relaxed.

“Yeah but,” Gavin started.

“They know what a fucking wall is, or whatever bullshit you’re about to bring up, they lived in caves they weren’t fucking infants.” Michael said.

“Fine,” Gavin said, “Michael wins.”

After he lost the game he started, he brought the hypotheticals back, “Okay what about this, you get a million dollars, but for once a month your dick pisses blood, but it’s really irregular.”

“What the fuck?” Michael asked.

“That’s just a period, you know.” Meg pointed out, “And nobody’s giving me or Lindsay a million dollars.”

“Yeah but there’s no such thing as a nob tampon, so you’re gonna ruin your boxers once a month.”

“Wouldn’t that just be the worst,” Meg said rolling her eyes.

That was all Gavin did until they went over ‘business’ at the end of the day, then he actually did some work. His crawlers had picked up stats and stuff on the Corpirate’s movement and what the other crews were bringing in, she had no clue where he’d found some of his numbers since most of what he had was never reported on by anyone in the media. Starting tomorrow, Gavin would really need Meg in there to help him split that research between Michael and Lindsay to help them both stay under the radar but yesterday had really just been a trial run. It had let Meg see what went into Gavin’s job, and bonus she got to laugh at Michael and Gavin as they messed around.

“We’re going to get rid of Addams after we finish our shopping. Then I can be bored off my ass with you.” Lindsay reminded Michael, it was the same plan they’d settled on last night around dinner and he knew it.

“They get to go on a bloody shopping spree and we’re stuck working.” Gavin said.

“All you’ve done is ask stupid questions.” Michael said, and he screwed up his face and faked Gavin’s accent badly, “Michael, Michael, would you rather be a cartoon with a human nob or a human with a cartoon nob?”

“What’d you say,” Meg asked, she couldn’t remember Gavin asking that one.

“I didn’ ask that one, I’ll remember it for later though. I asked ‘im what he’d do if his girlfriend and his mum switched bodies and the only way to fix it was to sleep with one of ‘em.”

“Oh, what’d you say?” she remembered hearing it asked as she left the room yesterday, but she hadn’t stuck around to hear the answer out of fear that the question would be turned on her.

“That I don’t have a girlfriend,” Michael said gruffly.

“So I asked what he’d do if it were Lindsay and his mom.” Gavin said.

“What’d you say?” Lindsay asked and Meg immediately felt for Michael. Even though Lindsay sounded more curious than upset, he’d still been shoved into a really rough spot, and she couldn’t believe Gavin didn’t have the sense to shut up.

He shifted for a second but answered Lindsay’s question, “I said I’d rather kill myself, I’m fucking my mom either way.”

There was a tense silence and Meg wondered what was about to happen to their little group. Michael had his arms crossed over his chest and was looking at Lindsay cautiously. When she laughed the tension bled out.

“Good choice,” Lindsay said, “I’d’ve made the same,”

“Yeah well, I love ya Linds, but that’s not a line I’m willing to cross.”

“You two had a good run,” Meg added as she wondered if it was better or worse that this was turning into a joke.

“Speaking of crossing lines, here’s Addams’ new passport and his ticket to Spain.” Gavin said,

“How is that speaking of?” Lindsay asked.

“Crossing lines, crossing borders it’s kinda like the same thing.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Michael asked.

“It’s a stretch even for you, Gav.” Lindsay said looking at the passport Gavin handed her, “Oh no, you have to change this, what the fuck dude are you crazy?”

“What the hell did he do?” Michael and Meg asked. Lindsay showed them the passport and they all turned to stare at Gavin.

Meg really wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, because he acted dumb a lot of the time, but when he explained, he almost always had a good reason for his behavior. That is, when he could overcome his own brain to explain.

“What?” he asked, and fuck the benefit of the doubt. Meg couldn’t believe he didn’t get the problem they had with this passport.

“Fucking Pubert, are you fucking kidding me?” Michael asked.

“What? It’s a name,” Gavin said, defensively.

“No, it’s fucking not!”

“Gavin you can’t expect him to make it through customs with a name like that on his passport?” Meg asked.

“Why not? It’s just a name, unless you think my work is bad,” Gavin said.

“I think anything with the fucking name Pubert on it is bad yeah,” Michael said.

“Well how do you know it’s not his name? It’s not like he’s ever said, and it starts with a P.”

“Because Pubert isn’t a real fucking name.”

“It’s the name of the kid in the Addams Family,” Gavin said, “why can’t it be this guy’s name.”

“The kid from the Addams Family is fucking Pugsly or some shit, not fucking Pubert, and that can’t be our guy’s name because it’s not a real fucking name. It’s probably Phil or some shit.”

“It is too Michael! The baby from the movie, his name’s Pubert.”

“Gavin might be right,” Meg said quietly.

“What,” Michael asked turning on her.

“I mean, there was a movie and they did have a baby,” she said.

“Oh yeah,” Lindsay agreed, “Addams Family Values, that’s a pretty good movie.”

“Is that baby’s fucking name fucking Pubert?” Michael asked.

Meg and Lindsay shared a look and silently agreed that neither could remember that much about the movie, let alone the baby’s name. “It wouldn’t have been that weird,” Meg said.

“You better believe it was,” Gavin said, shoving his phone in Michael’s face.

“Get that shit outta my face. You fucking googled it to prove me wrong. Fucking Pubert, are you fucking kidding me?”

“The name stays,” Gavin said as Michael grumbled under his breath.

“It still isn’t a real name, just cause a TV show said it was,” Meg pointed out.

“Wendy wasn’t a real name until Peter Pan came out,” Gavin said.

“Where the hell’d you get that a fucking Snapple cap?” Lindsay asked with a grin.

“The name stays,” was all Gavin said.

“Fucking fine,” Michael said, “who gives a shit if he gets detained. Once he quits he’s not our fucking problem.”

“Shit,” Lindsay said suddenly, “we spent too long arguing. Michael, get the hell out of here you’re gonna be late.”

“Get me something nice when you’re out shopping, Turney,” was the last thing Michael said as he was walking out the door.

“I’m using his card,” she said to Lindsay, “so it’ll definitely be nicer than anything else he owns.”

“Did Michael get the same turn and cough treatment I did?” Gavin asked.

“Don’t be such a baby, I didn’t do anything to you. Things woulda been easier if two grown men knew their own measurements.”

Gavin scoffed and moved toward his room, but turned around and walked back toward them a second later. “Here take these so we can hear you while you’re out. You’ll be able to hear me an’ Michael while you’re wearin’ ‘em but you’ll hear each other better because of the ranging.”

They each took one of the offered earpieces and put them in. Meg could suddenly hear Michael mumbling to himself, mostly about the argument that he’d been having with Gavin before he’d left the room.

“I’ll turn Michael and my feeds down in each of your comms, and you’ll both be turned down in ours until after work ends and you’ll be getting Addams to leave. Try not to need us until then because we probably won’t hear you,” Gavin said.

“Who said we’d need you even then?” Lindsay asked.

“You might, he’s built like a bloody wall, you won’t be able to take him yourself.”

“Yeah and you’re gonna be so much help if he decides to fight us.”

“Michael might be!”

“Michael has had this fight before, and is staying the hell out of it,” Michael said.

“At least make a safe word so we can get you out if you need help,” Gavin said sounding exasperated.

“Fluttershy sucks?” Michael suggested.

“Did we just learn way too much about your sex life?” Lindsay asked.

Michael made a sputtering sound that didn’t translate as well over the comms as Meg thought it would have in person. “The point of a safe word is that it isn't something you’d say normally, isn’t it.”

“Yeah when it’s used in sex,” Meg said, “shouldn’t it be something you could work into a normal sentence without anyone noticing when you’re undercover?”

“You come up with something better,” Michael said.

“Rainbow dash blows,” Lindsay joked.

A small huff of a laugh came through the comm and Meg was glad he could laugh even when they were making fun of him, it wasn’t attractive when someone didn’t know how to take a joke when it was directed at them. “You’re the one saying you won’t even need it. Pick whatever the fuck you want.”

“I probably won’t be able to think of anything but Fluttershy now,” Meg admitted.

Lindsay laughed, “Same. And it’s not like we’re gonna need it anyway.”

“It’s just in case,” Gavin groaned.

“Well you can take your just in case and shove it,” Lindsay said with a smile.

“Lindsay,” Michael and Meg both said, surprised at her tone.

“Full of the vinegar,” Gavin said with a giggle.

“Said with love,” Lindsay said with a smirk.

“Said while leaving,” Meg said shoving at Lindsay’s arm so she’d move out the door. These three would start a fight over anything, full of the vinegar was right, and they brought it out in everyone. She was usually the fighty one in her group of friends. She was still one of the fighty ones now, but Michael and Gavin were always bickering about something; and while Lindsay was slower to get dragged into it, most of the time, when certain subjects got brought up she’d strike once and strike fast.

“I’m being ushered out,” Lindsay said and the amusement in her voice was thick and obvious, and it made Meg smile just a little as she kept trying to get her out the door; really it was just because she wasn’t fighting anymore.

The white noise was comforting as Meg was wandering through a small tailor shop that she hadn’t known existed before Lindsay drove them there, the white noise being the barely audible sound of Gavin speaking through her comm.

“How’d you know this place was here?” Meg asked slowly flipping through a rack of suits on one of the side walls.

“It’s Geoff’s preferred place,” Lindsay answered, and Meg looked up and found that Lindsay was across the small store and not behind her like she previously thought.

“That makes sense. There’s some expensive stuff here, is that why no one’s ever robbed it?”

Lindsay hummed, “Something like that, you don’t shit where you eat, ya know. So you don’t rob Geoff’s tailor and you don’t rob Ammu-nation,” Meg could see her wave her hand around in the air beside her head as her other hand kept flipping through the rack she was looking at, “and a coupla other places around town too. The liquor store is usually left alone, the one that sells the expensive whiskey anyway.”

Meg heard herself make a small noise, the rules that these criminals set up for themselves were a little strange. They all made sense in their own way, like this one about not robbing places you spend any amount of time in, though Michael had been telling her one about screen looking that she still couldn’t quite make sense of.

“Gavin said he wanted silk,” she said, going back to what they were actually supposed to be doing. “Insisted on it, said that he has a bunch of them that he wears when he’s meeting with clients but he didn’t bring any since he thought he’d be hacking.”

“We aren’t good enough for silk?” she asked, “All we got were those tight ass jeans and that stupid purple shirt.”

“I think we should be lucky he was even dressed that nice,” Meg said, “that’s better than the plaid shorts he’s been wearing around Michael’s.”

Lindsay snorted, “Fair play.”

“Silk, silk, silk,” Meg half-sang to herself, flipping through a rack of shirts that were all made of the rich fabric.

“What did you say Michael’s measurements were again,” Lindsay asked and Meg looked up from two nearly identical shirts, trying to find where Lindsay had wandered off to.

“I wrote them down, you stuck it in your back pocket,” she answered and smiled softly at the small, pleased noise Lindsay made when she found it.

“Green for the eyes or navy for his complexion,” Meg asked, mostly just talking to herself.

“Just get both, and maybe two more in case this goes long,” Lindsay suggested.

Meg jumped, Lindsay’s voice was no longer just coming from her earpiece but right over her shoulder. “Fuck, you scared the shit out of me.” Meg whispered, keeping her voice down since the two of them were already getting glares sent their way by the elderly looking man standing beside the equally old looking register.

“Sorry,” Lindsay giggled, but she didn’t really look sorry at all. Not with the way her hand was resting on Meg’s hip bone and her head was resting on her shoulder. “Get those two,” she said pointing to the shirts Meg had been deciding between. “Then get that purple one,” she pulled it from the rack with the arm that wasn’t still wrapped around Meg and put it beside the others, “and this grey one,” she removed her hand from Meg’s hip bone and putting this new shirt alongside the others. Her arms were now bracketing Meg, keeping her trapped between Lindsay’s chest and the rack of clothes.

She cleared her throat, suddenly very aware of how Lindsay was blanketing her entire back and her head was now almost sitting on top of hers. Lindsay pulled away and laughed a little self-consciously; she held out the two shirts for Meg to take, now standing a respectable distance away from her. “Thanks. You came back over here, what’d you want?”

“Oh right,” Lindsay said, “so we’ve had Michael in that awful jacket for the last three days, and he’s been wearing a suit so he can’t exactly stop now.”

“Right,” Meg said, trying to figure out where she was going with this.

“Right, so I was thinking we get rid of that awful jacket and replace it with a vest.”

Meg took a second to consider. They were already replacing the jacket, so it wasn’t like they couldn’t get something that would fit better than the thing he had now, cause Lindsay was right it was awful. But then, she spent a little bit longer thinking about how that vest Lindsay was suggesting would look, highlighting a trim waist and broadening the shoulders. It was an attractive image to say the least.

“Yes,” she said quickly, “absolutely, in greys and blues.”

Lindsay smiled and slipped off again, Meg figured they would meet up again before they went to get everything paid for and get the final adjustments made. They could divide and conquer this way, Lindsay could handle getting Michael’s things and Meg could find Gavin something that wasn’t plaid shorts or skinny jeans.

They met back up at the front of the shop twenty minutes later, each with arms full of clothes for the boys. Lindsay handled Michael’s things before passing off his card so she could deal with Gavin’s. She placed his things on the counter in front of the old man, who was still staring at her like he didn’t think she belonged, super rude since she knew he’d just watched Lindsay drop several hundred dollars on Michael’s things and could see that she was getting ready to do the same. She figured it was because she was in her Filthy Casual shirt and he didn’t think she should be in here. Guys like this were elitist snobs there was no getting around it, the best way to handle it was to act like you were right where you were supposed to be and you had no idea why he thought you weren’t.

So she smiled as she ran a hand over the silk and handed him a copy of the measurements she took from Gavin. “Hi, I’d like to get these and have them altered slightly to fit these measures.” she said with a deliberately even tone, “can you take the pants in just a bit more than I have written, he likes a tight fit.”

The man agreed and took her card, Michael’s card really, without another word. After assuring them both that their things wouldn’t need much altering, Meg and Lindsay left the store with the promise that their order would be ready later that afternoon. “Just enough time for us to get our things and grab lunch,” Lindsay said and linked arms with Meg as they went back to the car.

Their shopping trip was more like a montage than the stop before. There were several small boutiques in the plaza Lindsay stopped in they both had to figure out what look they were going for. Michael had his suit, Gavin was wearing silk but was otherwise pretty casual, and now Lindsay and Meg had to figure out where they would fit.

Well Meg didn’t really, Lindsay had told her as they walked into the first store that she really didn’t think that Meg would be going into work for very long, but she was never one to pass on new clothes.

Lindsay was debating between going with a skirt or slacks. Both would be cute on her, Meg decided, she would look adorable in anything. Normally she would tell her that but she was more focused on herself right now. Wondering if it was appropriate to wear her Tetris dress to work or if she should buy something new; she also had her owl skirt in her bag, but neither felt business-y enough. She’d found a nice pencil skirt she was thinking about getting.

Something more professional might be good to have anyway, she thought, after this was over she would need a new job anyway. Who knew if Burnie would even still want her working with the Know, not all of the places that might want to hire her would have a dress code as lax as SourceFed; and besides, who didn’t love a nice high-waisted skirt.

Her internal debate was stalled when Lindsay, who’d decided that pants were the better option, came up to her holding two left shoes.

“Hate to break it to you lady, but those don’t match.”

“Smart ass,” Lindsay said with an eye roll before shaking each shoe in turn, “which do you like better?”

They were both black shoes, both cute, the only real difference between the two was that one was a flat and the other was a heel, a heel that would give Lindsay another two inches on her. “Flats, I’m going to say it’s for mobility, or whatever, but really I don’t want you to be any taller than me than you already are.”

Lindsay left and Meg was pretty sure she could hear her laughing, “If you see those heels in my size though bring them over.” That head shake, she decided, was fond especially when she saw Lindsay pick up the box in her size.

Next stop was the wig shop, but that wasn’t much of a stop; or it wasn’t supposed to be. She knew she wanted, a chestnut color around shoulder length or just a hair longer. She should have just gone in by herself, it would have taken her just a few minutes to get what she wanted and she could have been back out and in the car on the way to lunch twenty minutes ago.

But Lindsay wanted her shopping montage, she was very insistent on that and two stores just weren’t enough. So that meant trying on every wig she could get her hands on.

“I used to be a blonde,” she told Meg as she slid on a platinum colored one.

“That kind of blonde?” Meg asked, because yeah it looked good on her but it wasn’t a color that happened naturally.

“No, well yeah for a little bit, but that was just an in-between thing. It was like a dirty blonde, naturally.”

Meg took a purple colored wig she was handed, “An in-between stage for what?”

“Blue,” Lindsay answered with a shrug, “you have to dye your hair a crazy color at least once in your life right.”

“I guess, I think most people do it in college though,” she pulled on the purple wig, smoothing it down a little so it would cover her red.

“I went for a little while, does that count?”

“Really?” Meg asked.

“We aren’t all criminals from birth,” she said.

“No,” Meg tried to back track, “I didn’t mean.”

“Chill, I’m kidding,” she said, running a hand down Meg’s arm to stop her from trying to cover her tracks, “I went for a while, and then I stopped when I realized I could become a masked vigilante. Batman was always the last stop on my career path.”

“Shut the hell up, no it wasn’t,” Meg said with a wide smile.

“It kinda is and I kinda am, it happened a lot faster for me than it did with some; but everybody moves at their own pace I guess. Michael’s been working his way into a crime family like Rooster Teeth since he was sixteen, then there’s Ryan who has at least one degree, framed next to his most wanted poster.”

“Really?”

“I think it’s in theatre, but yeah.”

Meg ran her hand through her hair, a nervous habit she’d had for as long as she could remember, and instead of finding her own her fingers became tangled in the synthetic purple strands of the wig she was still wearing. “The purple suits you,” Lindsay said, conversationally.

“You’re changing the subject,” Meg said taking off the wig and smoothing down her hair, “what’s this college to criminal transition that you went through.”

“You do some small favors for some people, to pay the bills. Maybe kill a guy in self-defense, and cause he’s just a real fucked up dude, and start getting offers from some major players. Drop out of college and join a girl gang, any other questions.”

Meg paused, she had a lot of other questions most of them were for clarification. She was also very aware that Lindsay had just shared a lot of personal details with her and that she really shouldn’t push too much or she might close off. “Can we get lunch now?”

Lindsay smiled, offering her arm for Meg to take. “Let’s get smoothies.”

They were sitting at cute outdoor cafe with their bags cluttered around them and their smoothies in front of them. “How are we gonna do this,” Meg asked after they’d sat in silence for a few seconds.

Lindsay had just taken a long pull from the drink in front of her, and gave her a confused wide eyed look as she was sipping from her straw. “How are we gonna get rid of Addams?” she clarified.

“I thought we’d do it the same way Michael and Gavin did, unless you had another idea.”

“No that works,” Meg said, “who’s gonna be who?”

“I thought that would be obvious,” she said, tilting her head to the side just a bit, such a small amount that she probably didn’t even know she was doing it.

“Color me dense then, cause I don’t have a clue.”

“What do you think they did?” Lindsay asked and there was an odd note in her voice like she was on her way to figuring something out but hadn’t quite connected all of the dots yet.

“Gavin said they did Bond villain and his pissed off cat.” she said, and it sounded exactly as stupid leaving her mouth as it did when it left Gavin’s when she asked about it.

Lindsay laughed loudly, and people passing on the street stopped their walk to give her concerned looks. “That makes so much more sense, Michael said they did good cop, bad cop.”

“So how do you want to do it, not Gavin’s way?”

“Not Gavin’s way,” Lindsay agreed.

“We could try asking nicely, maybe he’ll leave if we just give him his ticket and ask him nicely.”

“God, you’re adorable, I really wanna keep you once all of this is over. You can be the cat my landlord says I can’t have!”

Meg gave Lindsay what she hoped was a clearly unimpressed look, “If you didn’t like the idea you could have just said.”

“I like the idea,” Lindsay assured, “I don’t think it’ll work, but it’s cute and I like it. Let’s try good cop, bad cop and if it doesn’t work we can improvise.”

They sat quietly for a few minutes, Meg was mulling over the plan a little as she sat and sipped at her drink. “We haven’t talked about it much,” Meg started to say and paused as she tried to think of what she wanted to say.

“Haven’t talked about what much?” Lindsay prompted when Meg didn’t finish.

“What we’re doing… when all of this comes to a head, with the Corpirate and everything.”

“Is this your way of asking if we’re going to kill him,” Lindsay asked softly.

 Meg shook her head no, “Maybe?”

Lindsay sighed, “Probably yeah.”

“There’s no way of getting around it,” she asked hopefully.

“When Geoff Ramsey says he wants someone to go away, it means he wants them gone.” Her voice had taken a very serious edge, and Meg was suddenly very aware that she wasn’t really talking with Lindsay but with renowned assassin Ruby Rose.

“There has to be a way to get him thrown in jail.”

“Have you seen how much money this guy has?” Lindsay asked, “You can send him to jail all you want, and he’ll be there for ten minutes, maybe. Then he’s only going to come back even more pissed off.”

“But what about…”

“There are seven billion people in this world,” she said in a harsh voice, “and you’re over reacting because we’re planning on killing one of them.”

“But-”

“Seven billion, now shut up and drink your smoothie. We have to get Michael and Gavin’s tailoring picked up before we threaten this guy into quitting.”

—

“I really wanna break into his apartment and wait for him,” Lindsay said for the third time as they walked up the block. Meg was really sapping all of the fun out of this intimidation thing, and all because she didn’t want to ‘get killed.’ The mood was lighter now though, things had gotten kinda heavy at lunch, and sure, Lindsay felt a little bad about snapping at her but every time she thought Meg was getting how things worked, she made some naïve comment like that.

Which fine Lindsay could understand some of her concerns, and those concerns lead to good ideas that she wouldn’t have thought of. Like parking up the block so he didn’t see their car and get spooked, it made sense, and was really a good idea that had slipped Lindsay’s mind. And maybe they shouldn’t break into his apartment and scare him when he was more than twice their size, she’d mocked Gavin for saying it but there really wasn’t much of a chance that either of them could take him in a fair fight.

But all of that considered she still really wanted to do it.

“Well, I really don’t want a B&E charge,” she said finally responding to Lindsay’s complaining.

“I’m gonna let you in on a trade secret. If you’re a cute girl, there’s no such thing as a breaking and entering charge.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“If you’re pretty you can get away with murder,” Lindsay said with a shrug.

“Well you would know. But how the hell are you getting away with B&E just by being pretty?”

“Nobody wants to think a girl is up to no good, I was sent to kill you and you thought my stalking was because I was a fan who wanted an autograph.”

“Point taken,” Meg said with a grimace. “But breaking and entering, how does that work. That’s hard to hide.”

“Depends on the area.”

“What do you mean? You’re breaking into a building, how many different ways to do it are there?”

“Five I can think of off the top of my head, but you’re really only limited by your imagination. I meant, though, there are different ways to avoid trouble.”

“Let’s start with one, like the one you were planning on using to get us in the door.”

“Surprise party.”

“Surprise party?” she repeated like Lindsay was crazy.

“Only because there are two of us, it’d be different if I were by myself. We’re just two friends setting up for a party, they won’t be able to tell the difference between picks and a key.”

“And the fact that we’re empty handed?”

“No one is gonna give two shits, you know why?”

“Because we’re two, cute girls,” they said together.

“Right,” Lindsay agreed, “so we’ll be fine.”

“Yeah we will,” Meg agreed, “because we aren’t breaking in.”

“Are you going to have this argument much longer, because he left work twenty minutes ago,” Michael’s voice rang out, startling them both. Lindsay had gotten used to only hearing him as faint white noise in the back of her head.

“He’s just over a block away,” Gavin agreed.

“That’s not helpful,” Lindsay said, “ETA?”

“Three minutes, maybe, he’ll be able to see you in ‘bout thirty seconds.”

“See that’s helpful,” Lindsay said. Now she had to adjust their plan, her plan really since Meg didn’t really know it and the parts she knew about she didn’t like.

“You aren’t going to want him to see you,” Michael said.

“Thanks, already figured that out.”

“Ten seconds,” Gavin warned.

Lindsay needed a plan. She thought she could see Addams walking down the street.

Acting mostly on instinct, and the vague idea that if it worked in the movies it would probably work now; she crowded close to Meg, who made a small noise of confusion but let herself be backed against the wall of the building. Lindsay felt like she was looming over Meg, as she braced one arm beside Meg’s head. She noticed that the other girl’s breathing had slowed and shallowed, and her hip was surprisingly warm under Lindsay’s hand.

Meg was still gaping slightly, her surprise at getting moved by Lindsay earlier had left her staring up at Lindsay with her mouth open just the smallest bit. Lindsay leaned in closer, not entirely in charge of her own movements, as she was torn between staring into hazel eyes or at red lips.

Meg was tilting her head up just the smallest bit. She seemed like she was pushing herself up off the wall a little to meet Lindsay to get rid of the small, so very small, gap that was between them. Lindsay realized that the thumb on the hand she’d set on Meg’s hip was rubbing small circles into the skin that was showing from where the brick wall was tugging Meg’s shirt up just a little.

Lindsay could feel as Addams passed behind them, his movement caused a slight breeze that hit the back of her neck and shocked her back into her own head.

It had her pulling away with a start as she tried to figure out why it was suddenly so hard to breathe.

“Well that’s one way to do it,” Michael said, and it made her wonder just what they could see and hear.

“PDA makes people uncomfortable,” she said, answering a question that hadn’t even been asked. That had been her plan in the beginning anyway. Now she wasn’t sure if it was really her plan or just her brain trying to help fulfill some things her subconscious wanted to do, that damn subconscious was always getting her into trouble when it came to thoughts about friends.

“He’s in the building now,” Gavin said, “should be safe for you to go in.”

“Do we want to talk about this,” Meg asked in a whisper, like she thought that would keep Michael and Gavin from overhearing.

“Like I said, PDA makes people uncomfortable. When’s the last time you stared down two teenagers mid-make out?” Michael and Gavin, to their credit, kept their mouths shut.

Meg nodded, content enough to let Lindsay avoid the topic for a little longer. Not that there was anything to talk about. There were three questions that Meg could ask, and they all had answers. One, what was that? Answer: a diversion tactic, and a successful one. Two, where the hell did that come from? Answer: a general desire not to have the plan blown before it could even start. Three, were you about to kiss me? Answer: I have no fucking clue.

The questions that those last three could have led to, those she didn’t have answers to. And the one that was sticking out the most in her mind, would you have me kissed back, was one she wasn’t sure she even wanted an answer to.

“You’ll have to find your own way into the building,” Gavin said, “I can hack a security system but I can’t do anythin’ with a lock.”

“Good thing I don’t need your help then,” Lindsay said, and even she could hear the vinegar in her words; but she was getting really sick of them thinking she couldn’t handle herself.

She couldn’t make out what Michael said next, he must have taken out his comm on purpose so she couldn’t, but she could hear the rise and fall of his voice as he spoke.

Gavin made a small, “Oh,” of understanding before going on to add, “His apartment is on the second floor to the right, the third building in the complex. In case you missed which one he went in, while you were busy doing other things.”

Lindsay smiled with some pleasure at the hiss of pain the Gavin gave, Michael must have hit him for that last comment. “Why’d you do that, you mong.”

She heard Michael’s answering, “You know why,” and wondered if he was close enough to Gavin that it was picking up or if he’d just put his comm back in.

Meg was waiting right beside Addams’ door and seeing her leaning against the wall had Lindsay thinking again. About how warm the air between them had gotten in the already hot city. About how Meg’s breath had hitched, just the smallest bit, when she’d moved her against the wall. About how Gavin’s voice had been tinged with a little bit of the vin too, after it’d first happened, but it had gone away after whatever Michael had whispered to him.

“What’s the plan again,” Meg whispered, afraid of being heard by Addams through the paper thin wall. A valid concern actually, on second thought.

Lindsay shrugged and Meg jumped as she knocked loudly on the door, “Don’t have one anymore.”

“You don’t what,” was all Meg managed to say before the door swung open and a huge tank of a dude filled the doorway.

To say he was bigger than them would be a massive undersell, because Lindsay was sure she and Meg could combine forms like they were in some old cartoon and this guy would still be over twice their size.

“I don’t think I want what you girls are selling,” he said.

Lindsay’s foot caught the door as it was being shut in their faces. “I think you’ll want to at least hear our pitch first.”

“Please,” Meg said, and Lindsay deserved an award for not collapsing into a huge sigh at that.

“Come on in,” he said, opening the door with a wide sweeping gesture toward the center of the room.

“You clearly already know why we’re here,” Lindsay said, making herself comfortable in a large chair that was clearly Addams’ favorite. It was a power play, one she’d learned from Ryan back when they’d both been solo players. They’d joked that they shared the same nonexistent desk since they were hired for the same jobs so often, it was still their team name when they gamed together.

“Do I,” he asked, making no show that it bothered him that Lindsay took his seat as he settled down across from her. She didn’t think she was losing her touch, so it must be Meg standing behind her that was taking away from her power play. Unless this guy was just really good at hiding his discomfort.

“We need you to get out of here, you can do it on your own or we can make you.”

“Like you made Taylor Jones? Please do, I’d like to see you try.”

It really pissed her off when people called her on her shit like that.

“We can help you out, we can make sure you can vanish without anyone coming after you.” Meg tried, a sweet offer, and said much nicer than Lindsay had made hers.

“Is that the same empty promise you made Taylor? Because I’m afraid I don’t buy it, my dear.”

“Empty promise, my identities are not empty promises,” Gavin said.

“Shut up,” Michael said and Lindsay appreciated Michael’s ability to read her moods in times like this.

“This is the best you’re going to get,” Lindsay said, “you should really take it from us. The next deal you get won’t be nearly as good, your shelf-life‘s almost up from what I hear.”

Addams turned to Meg, “Counter offer, you _are_ the good cop, are you not?”

Meg stiffened, “No, just agreement that you’re next way out will probably be a bullet to the head, instead of a ticket back home.”

“Fair enough,” he said, and Lindsay preened quietly at the back bone that Meg had shown when Addams had turned on her.

“So you’ve got my way out then,” he asked.

“Yes,” she said meeting his gaze head on, “and you can have it after you call and quit.”

He nodded as if he agreed with her, “And how do I know there’s really a way out, that you aren’t just leaving me to die at the hands of the Corpirate.”

“Because we aren’t lying pieces of shit,” Meg said and it sounded like a question when they all knew it wasn’t.

Lindsay placed the ticket and passport on the table that was between them so he could see it, her hand hovering over it so he couldn’t grab it yet though.

The call lasted five seconds, Addams dialed the number and after someone on the other end answered he said, “I quit,” and hung up.

Lindsay stood, removing her hand from the items they had brought. He picked them up with greedy hands, not bothering to hide his eagerness. “What kind of name is Pubert,” he asked in a scandalized voice.

“Better than the one you have now,” Meg said as they walked out the door, “the one the Corpirate and all of his men are going to be looking for.” Meg left on the one liner, because she had a sense of dramatic timing that Lindsay envied just a little bit.

She shrugged at Addams dumbstruck look, because that really was a badass line, she was a little awestruck too. She didn’t know Meg had it in her, but it really was a sight to see.

“Thinks have been taken care of,” Meg said, and Lindsay assumed she was talking to Gavin now that they were out in the hallway.

“Well I kinda figured,” he replied, “I _can_ bloody hear you.”

“I’m at the top of the list,” Lindsay asked, “that’s really way that question meant, Gav.”

“Yeah, course took care of that ages ago, should hear from them any time.”

Her phone started ringing as if on cue. The same automated voice that had spoken to Michael now greeted her. “Elise Tuggey, report to Black Flag Trading at 0800 hours tomorrow morning. If you are not there at the desired time you will be removed from the list and the next applicant will be called.”

Lindsay hung up and grinned at Meg, hoping she couldn’t see the nervousness that she could feel building in the pit of her stomach. She offered her arm so they could head home, “Half-way there.”


	10. Chapter 10

Lindsay and Meg had almost kissed in an alleyway. Michael and Lindsay had this will they won’t they tension that was almost suffocating when they looked at each other. Gavin was fairly certain Meg found him physically attractive at least, if he was going just by her body language, it was the same with Lindsay. He never was sure where he stood with Michael, but he’d started touching him now and Gavin wasn’t sure it was strictly platonic.

None of them could seem to find their footing with each other, their dynamics seemed to be shifting faster than they could adjust. Whenever Gavin thought they'd found level ground to catch their breath again, well something like Lindsay and Meg going at it in an alleyway happened and they were thrown for a loop again. It made for a stressful working environment to say the least, but damn if they still didn’t work together just as well as, if not better than, any other crew Gavin had been a part of.

They worked together brilliantly, at least they did when Gavin could ignore the voice screaming at him about body language. Years of using his camera hacking to catch infidelity, so he could pay his rent, had him reading body language like it was his second language. It was useful, for more things than just knowing when the people around him were getting laid; and it came in handy when he was dealing with new clients, so he knew when things were close to getting violent and he could bail since he wasn’t that good at defending himself.

But it did make it hard to ignore all of the signs that everybody wanted to bone. Michael couldn’t help but smile if he looked at Lindsay for too long, and she did the same, but could actually manage to wait until he turned away to start smiling like an idiot. For all the willpower she showed while looking at Michael, she couldn’t keep her eyes off of Meg’s lips, not that any of them really could after yesterday. Things had gotten very real, very fast and Gavin and Michael had had a front row seat thanks to the apartment’s security cameras. He wasn’t the type of person who needed to munk off after seeing someone attractive having sex or doing any sort of sexy thing. It’s what made him so good at catching people cheating, he didn't get caught up in the action like some people he'd worked with, but he had needed a cold shower that night.

And every other night that week, because now that Michael decided he wasn’t a waste of space he wouldn’t stop touching him. All of them were guilty of being handsy with one another, but Michael was the worst. He would punch him in the arm when he wanted Gavin’s attention, gently now, not the way he used to. He kept grabbing Gavin’s shoulder and pulling him into a side hug whenever he said something Michael found funny. Then, when they’d gathered around Michael’s couch the night before to watch some show he and Lindsay were obsessed with, he threw his arms around the back of it so that he had his arm around Lindsay and, more importantly, Gavin his hand would brush the side of Gavin’s neck every so often as Michael thoughtlessly played with Meg’s hair where she was sitting on Gavin’s other side.

If all of that weren’t enough, the wrestling was close to driving him mad. If he was hugging Gavin because he made him laugh, he was just as likely to start fake fighting him when Gavin pissed him off. It always ended with Michael half straddling him and making some comment about Gavin needing to improve his fighting skills before he went undercover. Gavin didn’t really care about any of that, he was just trying not to get a boner while Michael was sitting on top of him.

If Michael was loud in his, Gavin was currently calling it friendly affection, then Lindsay was just a little softer. She was always smiling at him, an innocent gesture if she weren't almost as handsy as Michael. She'd smile and brush a hand down his arm, or grin and give him a cheeky smack to the cheek if he was close enough, or smirk as she ran a hand through his hair and messed it up as she insisted you could hardly tell the difference.

She had no problem getting close and staying there and it didn't seem to matter to her who she was getting close to. She'd taken food literally out of his mouth more than once in the week they'd been staying together, and had no reply to Michael's lecturing but another smile quirking up at her lips as she continued to eat her stolen food.

Meg talked with her hands a lot Gavin learned, and it was pretty easy to tell who she was focused on when she directed her hands at them. In a room with the four of them Gavin felt like he was on the receiving end of her gesturing a lot. Some of it was accidental, they'd started squeezing themselves onto Michael’s couch more and more to help relax after a stressful work day, and Meg usually found herself squished between the arm of the sofa and Gavin. Whenever she spoke, and got excited, her gesturing usually ended up being more toward Gavin as she would hit him every now and then with a waved hand or sharp point. Or around the table when they ate dinner, Meg was turned toward him more often than not as she would wave her hands. Michael and Lindsay turned toward each other talking about the case or they would watch with small, matching smiles as Meg talked enthusiastically about some indie game she'd just seen a teaser for.

He figured he had another week with these three before all was said and done. He could survive a week of this weird crush he had on the three of them, and the wondering if that was what was making him see all of this flirting back. They couldn’t possibly like him back after all, at least not in a way that was anything but friendly, he was probably imagining it because he wanted his dumb crushes to feel less hopeless. He could ignore them for another week though, he thought, and then maybe he’d go back to England for a bit, see Dan and regroup.

It was a solid plan, he was pretty confident in it even, until Lindsay walked out dressed for work with Michael following right behind her.

They made a devastatingly attractive couple normally, he thought it came from this casual confidence they projected whenever they entered a room. It was especially obvious dressed the way they were now. Lindsay’s blouse was cut lower and fit tighter than the clothes he’d seen her wear before and her pants hugged her hips and legs and made them seem like they were even longer. Then there was Michael who even as he was fiddling with his sleeves seemed so put together and at ease. That waist coat Lindsay had put him in had Gavin’s mouthwatering. He knew Michael was fit, he’d been thrown to the ground by him enough to know that, but it was even more obvious now that his jacket was off.

Meg let out a loud wolf whistle and it startled Gavin enough to at least blink to break up his staring, god knows how long he’d been doing it.

“Looking good Tuggey” he said an innocently flirty comment that could explain his gawking.

Michael was still fiddling with this sleeve and Gavin thought it made him sound even more pitiful when he asked, “What about me?” Really, just because he wasn’t making eye contact with any of them not because he seemed upset.

Meg and Lindsay shared a look, something they’d been doing more and more the longer they worked together. “You’re pretty too babe,” Lindsay said and the term of endearment slid off her tongue so easily Gavin wondered if she even knew she’d used it.

“Just dashing, Michael,” Gavin said and it was supposed to sound sarcastic but he was worried it sounded much more sincere.

“It’s amazing what a suit that actually fits will do,” Meg agreed.

“Don’t bullshit me,” Michael said, his tone still light and joking, “Lindsay looks like a babe and I look like shit, it’s fine I can take it.” Meg looked like she was going to stroke Michael’s fragile ego again, when Michael shouted, “God damn it, what the hell is this shit? Why the fuck do I need this stupid metal bullshit in my sleeves?”

“They’re cufflinks,” Meg said slowly, more mocking than think Michael was genuinely confused, “and they were fucking expensive so you’re going to wear them.”

“Why do I fucking need them? My sleeves should have buttons.”

Meg looked personally offended and Lindsay laughed softly so that only Gavin, who was standing beside her, could hear. “That shirt was expensive,” Meg said slowly, now like she was talking to a particularly dumb kid, “just like the rest of your suit. You’re working with professional criminals you need to have a nice set of cufflinks.”

“What the fuck does that have to do with anything,” Michael shouted.

“Because everyone has one good suit, except the two of you for some reason, but it takes money to have nice cufflinks. It’s in the damn details.”

Gavin loved chaos, it was something that attracted to a life of crime, he loved to cause and watch chaos unfold. Watching Michael and Meg fight was like watching two forest fires battle one another, the flames tangling and licking at one another. You knew that one of them would win, as it burned hotter and brighter, engulfing the other, but only after they destroyed everything around them.

“Who gives a fuck about a good suit, give me my buttons back. I don’t give a shit what these dicks think.”

“Because all of these people are fucking loaded and you’ve been going to work dressed like a homeless person who got a free suit for a job interview in a church basement!”

“Loaded? These people live like shit! What the fuck are you on?”

“Taylor had a gambling addiction,” Meg listed off, hip cocked as she pulled each finger back as she listed her points, “and put tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands into it. Addams’ whole fucking apartment was filled with first editions, and you know that shit is expensive.”

“You know what a first edition looks like on sight,” Michael said, mimicking Meg’s stance, his hip jutting out as they stubbornly mirrored one another.

“I’m a crime reporter, people steal them all the time. So yeah, I know what first editions of Don Quixote and Oliver Twist look like on sight.”

Michael had just lost, and he knew it too as his jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed. He wasn't going to give up until he was well and truly beaten though, “And what vice do I have that’s going to explain my new wardrobe.”

“Aside from an appalling lack of taste when spending your millions?”

“Yeah, aside from that.”

“Just say you’ve got a new girlfriend who couldn’t believe the way you were dressing for work; so you had to take money from your other habits to indulge her. Lie as little as possible, right.”

Gavin wondered if Meg noticed that she’d basically just called herself Michael’s girlfriend.

Michael certainly did, as the tips of his ears went pink, and he took a half step back and toward the door, “I should go, Lindsay and I can’t show up at the same time and she can’t be late so I’m gonna go.”

He fled from his own apartment, trying to seem like he was leaving calmly but not quite managing. Gavin hoped that he remembered his earbud in his hurry to get out the door, but at least they would have Lindsay in the building as well if he had left it behind.

“Just what vice are you imagining for us?” Lindsay asked, the first person to speak since Michael and Meg’s argument.

“Huh?” Meg asked, her eyes still on the door Michael had just fled through.

“Have you imagined vices for all of us,” Lindsay asked again, her voice soft and teasing, “because you’ve clearly put a lot of thought into this.”

“Gambling addiction, call girls, or maybe something sexual who cares,” Meg said, she was obviously still somewhere else.

Lindsay gently grabbed a hold of Meg’s elbow with her thumb and first finger, to pull her focus back to Lindsay. Meg turned sharply and with wide eyes stared back at her, and it looked like Lindsay forgot what she wanted Meg’s attention for.

Not that Gavin blamed her, Meg’s eyes were mesmerizing, and frightfully easy to get lost in green that were almost hazel, flecked with blue, and the smallest bit of brown. Gavin had to stare at the monitor in front of him whenever she was in the room, just to keep from staring at her.

He could see the others do it too, Lindsay would lose her train of thought if she looked into them for too long, and they seemed like the only place Michael could look when Meg got excited about something.

And Gavin could read people, he knew that something was building between the four of them, he could feel it building whenever they shared a room. But Gavin was even better at reading himself. Years of working alone, with just a computer for company, had made him a master of introspection.

He knew what he was feeling, when he was feeling it, and most of the time he could pinpoint why. He could always feel the shift from acquaintance to friend and he could always see the gaping cavern between platonic and romantic love, especially when someone was tight roping across it.

It was the eyes, always the eyes. Not because of any of that bollocks about windows to the soul, he didn’t need windows he’d always been too good at seeing what a person really was. No, eyes were always honest.

He needed that honesty, craved it, couldn’t stand not having it; and he’d never met a person who could lie with their eyes, not really.

It’s why he liked Michael so much, even when the other man hated him, he was always clear and direct. Michael, with his warm bourbon brown eyes, was always honest even if he thought Gavin was being an idiot. He’d answer any question Gavin threw at him with nothing but a smile in his eye.

Lindsay was just the same, warm and open. She wouldn’t always answer Gavin’s questions, but he could tell it wasn’t malicious, he did have the tendency to pry. Lindsay, with a special light in her pale blue eyes, had a habit of watching the others a lot like he did. He wondered sometimes if she had made it to the same conclusion he did about their little group and the way they were falling together.

He could wax poetic about the three of them. Could but wouldn’t, he wasn’t so good with words once they left his head, what sounded good in his head didn’t always sound as good when it left. What sounded romantic or just genuinely nice in his head sometimes came across as creepy or like he was an asshole. So he just watched it’s what he was best at anyway.

He watched as Meg and Lindsay leaned close together, their conversation in hushed voices as their foreheads were almost touching. Gavin was sure they didn’t know they were doing it, and as Lindsay said goodbye she leaned in closer. Gavin wondered if they were finally going to seal the deal. A small peck would feel almost domestic compared to their actions from last night, but this is the one he felt like he was intruding on.

Lindsay pulled back at the last second, realizing what she’d been about to do. She smiled at them both and she ran a hand down Gavin’s back, a goodbye that sent a shiver where her hand had been. Her exit was calm, but as rushed as Michael’s had been as she left for work.

“You ready, Turney,” he asked when the door closed behind Lindsay, a hand placed cautiously on her shoulder.

She smiled at him, wide and bright, it had him grinning back goofily as he tried to settle the churning in his stomach, “Let’s get to work, Gavino.”

—

Lindsay made it past Foxy much faster than Michael had earlier in the week, but Lindsay wasn’t nearly as much of an asshole as Michael. She probably hadn’t deliberately fucked with the girl at the front desk like he had.

She still flopped down in the chair beside his, that had once been Addams’, at eight on the dot.

Something Coal felt the need to point out, “Fresh blood, and they arrived on time. Remind me again why you couldn’t Vinny?”

Michael had wanted to tell this guy where he could shove it since he’d met him. Addams had acted like a buffer, taking the brunt of Coal’s shitty attitude and keeping him from starting actual fights with each other. Now that buffer was gone and Michael had to keep from punching Coal’s stupid fucking face on his own; and he would if the fucker didn’t stop leering at Lindsay the way he was, her eyes were up there asshole.

“Michael,” Gavin said, reminding him that he wasn’t dealing with Coal entirely on his own, “you can’t kill him in the middle of the boardroom.”

Michael unclenched his hands from the armrests of his chair, something that took a conscious effort. Gavin must have noticed that he looked ready to vault from his seat and strangle Coal, something he would still do if he didn’t cut the shit. Even when Gavin was fucking around at their first meeting a week ago, eyeing up anything that had two legs and a pulse and walked past their table, he didn’t look like he was actually thinking about doing something about it.

Coal noticed too and chuckled, like some asshole movie villain before he leaves you strapped to a table with a lazer pointed at your dick – Michael really wasn’t sure why he was on such a Bond movie kick but he was starting to see it everywhere.

“Well,” Lindsay said, speaking for the first time since entering the room, “if he had to go through the same woman I did, I’m impressed he got up here at all.” A smirk quirked on her face and Michael knew what she was going to say before she could. “Right, Vinny?”

“Vincent,” he corrected, reintroducing himself to her over the sound of Coal’s gleeful laughter.

She smiled and extended her hand, the picture of professional courtesy, “Elise.”

It really wasn’t that different from the first time they met; only then it’d been Mogar and Ruby Rose and they’d met outside the apartment of the guy they’d both been sent to kill, Michael was getting ready to strap a bomb to the guys car and Lindsay had been about to do her thing.

It wasn’t even that different than the second time they met; then they’d been Michael and Lindsay, at the third or fourth job they’d worked together, one of Geoff’s that had needed an extra hand.

Really the only difference between then and now is now Coal was there, fucking purring or some bullshit, “Elise, what a lovely name.”

“Can he go next,” Meg asked, sounding more annoyed then Michael had heard her, “What a fucking creep.”

“Lindsay can handle herself, Turney,” Gavin said, but Michael could tell he didn’t sound much happier.

“It’s the one they gave me,” Lindsay said flippantly, “you been here long, Vincent, or are the still diving you shit for an old mistake.”

“You’re our second new hire of the week,” Coal answered for him, annoying but fine since Michael was caught up with how weird it sounded to have a name that wasn’t his leave her mouth.

“So I’m in good company then,” she said.

“You’re in the best company,” he agreed, eyes locked on her chest.

“Seriously what the fuck is wrong with this guy,” Meg asked in a loud outraged voice.

“He’s a smeggy bastard,” Gavin agreed.

“Would you shut up,” Michael said in a hushed whisper, it was still too loud to go unheard.

“Do you have a problem, Vinny,” Coal asked, Michael was amazed he managed to tear his eyes away from Lindsay to glare at him.

“Just think it’s creepy to watch you hit on this girl when you’re old enough to be her dad.”

“Well Vinny, I think the lady can speak for herself. I’d be more than happy to let her call me daddy if that’s what she wants.”

“Stab him,” Meg said, with a venom Michael had never heard before. “Stab him in his creepy face.”

Lindsay looked like she was reaching for her knife, even though Michael wasn’t sure which one of them Meg was talking to.

“We’ll get him later,” Gavin said, and Michael hadn’t heard that dark and planning edge to his voice before either.

Lindsay visibly relaxed, at least it was visible to Michael who’d noticed recently just how attuned to Lindsay’s actions he was. “Thank you Vincent,” she said, voice soft and deliberately avoiding looking at Coal, “I always appreciate a knight in shining armor.”

Michael felt his face and ears get warm, and he willed down the blush he knew he had.

“Welcome to the crew,” Mark said, the guy never really knew when it was better to just shut up.

“Thank you,” Lindsay said, “so can I ask what happened to the guy before me?”

“He was a weak willed traitor,” Coal said, upper lip curled in disgust, “something I’m sure we don’t have to worry about with you Miss Elise.”

“I’m sure you're exaggerating a little,” Lindsay said, her smile soft as she lead him to where she wanted him to go, even if her eyes were cold and hard.

“He left,” Coal said, “that’s all he needed to do to betray everything we’ve worked to do here.”

“What a fucking diva,” Meg said, Michael really appreciated that he had someone to say what he was thinking.

“So there’s nothing that could get you to leave,” Lindsay asked. Michael felt his nails digging into the wood of his chair at her fake innocent, flirty tone.

“What is she doing,” Gavin asked, and Michael had the feeling he wasn’t worried about her accidentally blowing her cover.

“There’s not a thing on this world that could get me to betray this company by leaving,” Coal said and Michael couldn’t fight the feeling that Coal was looking at him.

“I’m starting a new drinking game, take a shot every time this asshole says betrayed.” Meg said, “I’ll have the ambulance waiting to pump our stomachs before the alcohol poisoning can set in.”

“Nothing,” Lindsay said, and she managed to fight a smile at Meg’s comment and make her disappointment at Coal’s loyalty sound flirty. “I just don’t think you’re imaginative enough.” She turned away from him visibly and toward Mark, “What about you?”

Michael had wondered before, while watching Lindsay work, why she ever decided to become an assassin when she could have just been a fucking fantastic grifter. She had a talent for using her voice, and sure she could lie with the best of them but that was just part of being a criminal; but Lindsay had this talent for using her voice to become a whole other person that Michael hadn’t seen anyone do like she could.

Mark shrugged, and stared back at her. Lindsay still had a wide smile stretched across her face, her tapping fingers on the desk the only sign that she was annoyed. Mark really didn’t have much of a personality though, he wasn’t sure what Lindsay thought she’d be able to get out of him.

The dude was boring as fuck. Michael was starting to think of him as their neutral party, with Coal and Addams being their chaotic and good, but even that felt like he was giving the guy too much credit. He just sat there, in his suit that matched the brown of the wood behind him, and alternated between who he agreed with. Michael wouldn’t be surprised if he just left the building at the end of the day and sat in his house, waiting until he could come in for the next day.

“Really?” she asked, a coy smile stretched across her face, “I can’t believe you can’t think of anything.”

“If I didn’t know better Miss Elise, I would say that you’re trying to get rid of us like our last two coworkers,” Coal said.

Michael looked nervously up at the camera in front of him, the comm had gone suspiciously silent. Meg and Gavin hadn’t stopped their running commentary since the work day had started, now he could almost hear their shallow breathing as they, like him, wondered if Lindsay had pushed just a little too far.

She laughed, her talent for disguising her voice being used completely as the action didn’t meet her eyes. “Course not, I’m just curious. Can you blame me for trying to get to know everyone a little better?”

“I noticed you didn’t ask Vincent what he’d do.” Coal said, his eyes pinning them both to their seats, and Michael could see him jumping to the conclusion that they were working together.

“Shit,” Gavin said quietly, the first thing Michael had heard over the comms since Coal turned on Lindsay.

“Well you yelled at me before I could,” Lindsay reminded him not bothering to hide how much it annoyed her. She turned her attention squarely on Michael, and he had to be projecting the tension in the room because there is not a chance in hell anyone but him is worried about him giving the wrong answer to this question. “So Vincent, what would I have to give you to never see your sorry ass again?”

Michael rolled his eyes, if Lindsay was going to turn it into a fucking joke he wouldn’t have worried about it so much. He could hear Gavin and Meg laughing softly, but he was pretty sure they’d both been worried too, so he didn’t feel like as much of a dumbass. “Like a hundred bucks and some decent barbeque, and I would go away forever.”

“Shit, and I would have gone all the way to five hundred. You’re sellin’ yourself a little short Jones, you gotta leave room for negotiation.”

“What did you just call him,” Coal asked, and it was like the air got sucked out of the room again. The back and forth between joking around and being mildly afraid for his own life was starting to get pretty fucking annoying. He was used to it to some degree from running heists with the crew, it was a similar back and forth, from bursting into song with four grown men to almost getting shot by the upstanding members of the LSPD.

Except you get used to heists being like that, it stops being scary and starts to add a different sort of thrill when you can feel the bullets flying past your head. He looked forward to the sound of bullets ripping through metal and cracking windshields, the sounds they made from where he could hardly hear them over the cackling of the crew and the blood rushing in his ears. It was fucking fun, he wouldn’t do it if it weren’t.

But this shit, this was dragging up the kind of fear he used to feel back in Jersey, when he was first starting. The kind that’s just a constant, low pulse of anxiety, where you can taste bile in the back of your throat. The kind that has you wondering if everyone in the room knows just how out of your depth you are.

Cause this isn’t like a heist, even if he wants to pretend it is. This isn’t him fucking around with his friends while they rob people and take advantage of a broken system. Geoff and Jack and Ryan and Ray, they know the fucking risks that come from pissing off a bunch of grown men and women with a thing for violence and a fucking complex. They know that it only takes one wrong move and they won’t be making any more, it’s that high stakes kind of shit that dragged them into this life in the first place. This is a different kind of high stakes shit, it’s not just Michael who could end up in a bad place if he wasn’t careful, it’s Lindsay and Meg and Gavin.

Sure, Lindsay knows what she was signing up for when she agreed to do this, knows as well as Michael does that their career path doesn’t usually end in retirement. She agreed to take this job to help Meg out, and her own sense of revenge, but at this point, they were really here more for Meg.

And while he was thinking of Meg, she didn’t have a clue just what she had signed up for. She knew her life was in danger, the head she’d found in her living room had made it obvious that she was in a game that played for keeps, but he didn’t think she knew just how much her life was now in the hands of the people she was working with. It didn’t matter that Meg wasn’t there yet, once Michael and Lindsay got discovered it wouldn’t be long before they found her too.

Gavin was a little safer, it was pretty safe to bet that no one knew he was involved yet, but Michael didn’t think it would take much work to link the two fake ids that Gavin had made back to him. He didn't know what all went into the forgeries, but he got the feeling you couldn't make them and not link it back to yourself just a little.

That’s what was running through his mind as his heart stopped beating and Lindsay turned to face Coal head on. That woman was a fucking badass and Michael would always be a little in awe of her. “I called him his name, do you have a problem with that too?”

“He never said his last name,” Coal insisted, no more flirting between the two of them, probably because Lindsay couldn’t resist poking the bull when she had the chance.

“Pretty sure he did,” she said, and if Lindsay managed to talk her way out of this Michael might kiss her. “I wouldn’t know it if he didn’t say it already.”

“Unless you knew him already.”

“What are the odds of that happening,” Lindsay asked innocently. Michael almost jumped in at that point, because that’s really not denying anything, if anything she was just making it sound worse.

“I’d never met anyone in this room before today,” she continued, “and I think that’s point. Like that movie where the two guys that have the same trip to work and they kill each other’s wives, they have no connection so it can’t be traced back to them.”

“Strangers on a Train,” Meg said, filled in helpfully, like it actually mattered what the title of the movie was at this point.

Whatever it was, it seemed to convince Coal enough to drop it. Whether it’s because he was actually convinced by Lindsay’s argument or because he was silently preparing to destroy them, Michael wasn’t really sure which one was more likely. But he was a person and not the T-1000, and Lindsay was insanely convincing when she wanted to be so he was really hoping it was the first one.

“I think I remember him saying it,” Mark said, shocking the three of them. It was just so fucking easy to forget that he was even sitting there, he really just blended into the damn wall, but it was really hard to give a shit when he was agreeing with them.

Lindsay smirked, “See, no reason to get paranoid.”

“They don’t call it paranoia when you’re right,” Coal said.

“It’s still paranoia,” Lindsay said, “you just get to keep being paranoid longer.”

“Better paranoid than dead.”

Lindsay looked strangely serious, “I didn’t say I thought you were wrong.”

Michael knew she wasn’t kidding, they all had a very strange relationship with paranoia. It kept them alive; but if you had too much you couldn’t get anything done, no one would want to work with you. You had to be checking over your shoulder constantly but you couldn’t let it get to you so much that you locked yourself in your house, Michael had worked with people that ended up doing that. It took a certain kind of person to walk that line, and the ones who could got to stay in the game.

He and Lindsay, they had made it, and they’d been doing this shit for years. They would just have to start being more careful again. It was a stupid rookie fuck up, to forget the name you introduced yourself with, and the fastest way to piss off whoever you were working with. You couldn’t do shit like that, not if you worked by yourself and sure as shit not if you worked on a team. If you were lucky you would just get your shit pushed in and if you weren’t so lucky, well the gents had told him a couple of pretty scary stories about what’d been done to people like that; Ryan mostly, and being left bleeding in an alley had never sounded less appealing than when he was talking about it so excitedly. They wouldn’t always have someone as stupid as Mark Nutt sitting there to agree with them.

He’d come into this job thinking it would be quick, and he was wondering now if they’d been slacking off because they’d all agreed, somewhere along the way, that quick also meant easy. Lindsay had let his last name slip off her tongue without a second thought, sure, it was the last name of the identity they were using, but it could have easily been his first name that she’d said. They only had half of their crew in and they’d been doing this job for a week, and they still had no real sign of an end to this. They couldn’t start slipping up now when they could be stuck in this job for what was starting to look like a few more weeks.

“Now, Miss Elise,” Coal said, “we’ll break for lunch and when we come back we can get to the real work.”

As the words left his mouth, a loud ringing echoed through their room. Michael and Lindsay both looked around confused, it was way too loud to be coming from anyone’s phone but there was nothing in the room but the large table and the people sitting around it. Michael was turning in his seat, trying to find the source of the ringing, and he could hear Gavin in his ear trying to figure out the same thing.

“I can’t find a source, it has to be coming from somewhere inside the building,” he said, “I’m looking but I can’t find anything, shit, I can’t find it.”

Lindsay looked like she was trying to hide her nerves, Michael knew he was. Gavin sounded freaked and Meg hadn’t said anything since the ringing started, he really wished they would go back to the quiet chatter they’d had before, it’d been easy to tune out but it had helped settle him; fuck, even the loud threatening from earlier would be better than this. An old fashioned telephone ringing should not be filling him with dread, he blew buildings up for fun and was friends with some of the most infamous killers of his lifetime, but this fucking ringing sound made something twist in his gut.

The center of the table they were seated at started to slowly twist, separating into three pieces as it moved and disappeared into the rest of the table. A light flashed suddenly before settling into the normal hazy, white beam of a projector. The scowling face of the Corpirate was being flashed in front of them and Michael wasn’t sure if he was glad that Gavin and Meg were able to watch whatever he had to say through the camera.

They couldn’t see much of him, when he’d recorded this message, or wherever he was calling in from, he could only fit the slope of his shoulders and his head in frame. Michael thought Gavin really put it best, “He’s a massive, ugly bastard.”

He was, you had to be pretty huge to fill up the entire scope of the camera, but you couldn’t really tell until you saw him in person. Ugly, now that’s something you could see through a camera. His head was just as big as the rest of him, almost too big, and it seemed even bigger since his balding made his forehead blend straight into the top of his head. He had an eyepatch and a monocle, Michael didn’t know if he was indecisive or just a huge douche; but with the large scar that started just above the black patch  and went through it to the other side, he was willing to bet that he might actually need that one.

“It has come to my attention that me ship has been running under some new crew, and I’m not sure I like what I be seeing. So batten down the hatches, because I be coming in at the start of the week. So ship out ya landlubbers, cause I’ll be in to see ya shape up.”

Michael could hear that Gavin and Meg both had synced up, both mumbling a constant, “Shit, shit, shit,” under their breath. It only took him a second to realize that both he and Lindsay were silently moving their lips along with them.

“I’ve got some concerns about what is happening inside me ship, and I’ll be makin’ some changes about the way we be running. If I be seein’ any privateers among me mates, you can be sure they’ll be dancin’ the hempen jig.”

Nobody moved, Coal looked ready to jizz his pants now that he was finally seeing the Corpirate. Michael felt like he was going to be sick, he’d managed to catch a couple of the things in all that pirate slang, and what he caught he didn’t like. They were in some deep shit starting Monday, they couldn’t afford to fuck up like they did today.

“Are you three sheets to the wind, or are ye just stupid? Get the fuck out, heave ho. I’ll be in for the rest of the week, that’s when the real work begins.”


	11. Chapter 11

Michael and Lindsay came back to the apartment white as sheets. Meg and Gavin were waiting by the door for them, and had been waiting there pretty much since the two of them had stepped out of the boardroom. As soon as the door swung open Meg found herself looking them over, trying to make sure they were okay.

She had never seen anything but blurry, quickly snapped photos of the Corpirate, for all the destruction he caused in the city, managed to keep his face out of the public eye. She still hadn’t seen him in person really, since he wasn’t even really in the room, but what she’d seen had terrified her. She wasn’t even scared for herself. She’d been doing that since this shit started and she had maxed out the level of scared she could be for herself. No, now she was freaked because Michael and Lindsay were as good as trapped in there.

She and Gavin had looked up some of that pirate slang after he’d ended the call. It was unsettling to say the least. She was pretty sure what it came down to was the Corpirate knew they were there, or he knew someone was there if he wasn’t sure it was them. Whoever he thought it was, he planned to get rid of them. She didn’t think he planned on actually hanging them but the intent was very, very clear.

The thought of it made her feel like she had the noose he mentioned around her neck.

Michael pushed past them, moving them both with gentle hands, so he could get into the apartment and into the kitchen. He had a beer downed before she even noticed it was in his hand, but then the whole world seemed to be lagging a little bit.

He gestured at the three of them, the bottle moving in a small half-circle where they’d all gathered around him an instinctive reaction as they clustered close so that they felt safer, a silent question to see if they wanted one as well. “It’s a little early to be getting bevved up, isn’t it Michael boi?” Gavin asked, but took the fresh drink when it was pressed into his hand.

Michael shrugged, but didn’t disagree that noon was a little early to start drinking, “Just settling my nerves before we start changing our entire plan.” Michael said, and his words had a dark, guilty feeling twisting in the pit of her stomach.

This was all her fault, she’d thought she’d gotten over this feeling of responsibility. The feeling that she was the reason that they were in danger and that she was responsible for whatever happened to them.

When this started she’d been worried about herself, and she still was, but then she had also been sure that whatever would be thrown at them, that Michael and Lindsay would be able to handle it. Now she wasn’t sure that they weren’t just as lost as she was, just with better training to deal with it. She tried to remind herself that they agreed to help her, that they knew the risks when they signed up, but it didn’t help to ease the constricting feeling around her throat.

“What are we going to do,” she heard herself asking, surprised to hear her own voice but less surprised to hear how small it sounded.

Michael looked at her, and she saw the concern in his eyes, “We’re going to be fine, nothing is really changing.”

He was lying, she knew he was lying, she could see it and couldn’t stand it. “The Corpirate is coming in, don’t tell me nothing’s changed,” she said.

He winced, the only outward sign that he agreed with her and that he was worried about them getting found out. “We’ll just have to be more careful, should have been more careful anyway.”

“No one’s going to connect my IDs back to us,” Gavin said with a brash confidence she envied, “We’ll just be careful like Michael said.”

“Sure,” Lindsay said, “we fucked up today, and if this guy is gonna be watching us, we need to be more careful; but shouldn’t we start looking at how this guy even knows we’re there.”

“He doesn’t,” Gavin said, and Meg could feel herself slipping through the cracks of doubt she could see the longer he spoke, “he can’t, he’s bluffing. No one knows who you are in real life, I checked, and I’ve made sure no one has connected you to your crews. He can’t know who you are.”

His assurance was hysteric and as Meg’s own panic built, she wondered if he was as new to this as she was. If he was struggling to stay afloat as desperately as her. If he was having trouble finding the end in sight and could instead feel the certainty of his own death crawling up the back of his throat, like the claws of some dark creature making it hard to breathe as it rested in the swallow of her neck.

He couldn’t be, because he’d worked before, knew both Michael and Lindsay before this. She was the one who was out of her depth and struggling to survive. She was the one who would end up pulling them all into the deep with her. Because no one knew them, Gavin had already said that, had checked and double checked that Michael and Lindsay’s secret identities stayed that way, and no one in the media bothered with hackers unless it was political.

But they knew Meg, knew who she was, where she lived, and what her car looked like; they were after Meg, wanted her dead and gone, and had made it very clear there weren’t a lot of lines they were afraid to cross to do it. They were going to find her and they were going to kill her, even if they had to take out everyone else that she’d grown to care about to do it.

She didn’t know when Michael’s large apartment had gotten so small. Didn’t know when the walls around her had started to move in suffocatingly close. Didn’t know when the feeling of Lindsay and Gavin’s arms brushing against hers stopped feeling safe and started to feel like brands. Didn’t know when all of the air left the room, like their nervous planning had used it all up.

But it was gone, and she felt like she was drowning. As she tried to stop touching the people she’d felt the safest with, because their touch was like a brand of her own guilt, her own scarlet letter for dragging them into her mess; and she tried to find someplace to go where the walls weren’t pushing them closer together, a hellish way to atone for her sins.

She felt herself break away from them, stumbling away like she was drunk or sick. Falling forward like the mess she was, as she scrambled to get away. She couldn’t do this, didn’t know why she thought she could and now her mistakes were going to fuck over everyone around her.

She collapsed in the floor of the hallway, pushing her back into the wall and curling her knees into her chest, her head falling against them as she tried to pull in enough air to fill her lungs.  She tried to shake out the images that she was scared of most: Michael with his neck at an angle it shouldn’t be in, Lindsay with a gaping hole in her head, Gavin with his throat slit and bleeding over his keyboard.

Someone settled down beside her, she wouldn’t look up, didn’t want to see the horrifying visual put up against an actual face, it was bad enough when it was all in her head.

Whoever it was, she was thankful they weren’t sitting close enough to touch her. Thankful that it seemed that they were very carefully avoiding making contact. “Meg,” it was Michael, he spoke softer than she’d heard him before, as he sat beside her on the wall. “You’re having a panic attack,” and that made sense, explained why she forgot how to use her lungs and why the walls started rearranging themselves.

“I need you to breathe for me, Meg,” he sounded patient, but she wasn’t sure if she could. She couldn’t remember how to take anything other than the shallow breaths that would keep her alive. “Meg, listen to me okay, breathe with me.” She couldn’t nod, couldn’t move at all, but she listened as he started to count, “Breathe in, two, three, and breathe out, two, three, breathe in, two three,” he kept talking and breathing with her. After a while, she fell into the rhythm with him. Until she thought about what could happen to them again, what she was going to be responsible for, and her throat closed up and she was gasping for air that she couldn’t find anymore.

“Meg, Meg, babe I need you to listen to me okay,” Michael said, voice still calm and patient, but insistent and focusing her attention back from her panicking. “Just listen, okay and take in as deep a breath you can and hold it,” she did what he said and held a shallow breath for a few seconds. “Good now let it go, and breathe in again, a little bigger this time. Breathe in, hold for four, breathe out for four, think you can do that for me, babe?”

She managed a small nod, and managed to pull in a breath that was just barely bigger than the last, “Good, that’s good, keep breathing okay. I want you to just clear your mind okay, fuck that’s not really helpful, just think about nothing. Think about, like the wall that’s in front of you, big and blank, just get rid of whatever shit is bugging you.”

Meg tried, she kept counting her breathing and tried to shake away the pictures of her dead friends, slowly replacing it with a blank, white space. “I don’t know if this is actually helping,” Michael said, a soft confession, “but it’s what I used to do when this shit happened to me. It’s kinda scary at first when you can’t really breathe, it’s the bodies isn’t it?”

He was monologuing but the rise and fall of his voice was nice, and complimented, somehow, the counting in her head as she regulated her uneven breathing, “Sometimes it’s other people’s and sometimes it’s the people you care about, but it’s never your own. I think you spend so much time worrying about yourself that when it really starts to get to you, you realize that you were always more worried about them.”

Meg could feel her lungs fill completely, the longer Michael spoke the more air filled the room, and the easier it became to remember how to breathe normally, at least that’s what it felt like. “You forget about it sometimes, what it feels like to have this like brain numbing panic. When you get a crew that you really trust and care about, it either goes away completely or it gets like a million times worse. But once it gets worse you just learn to live with it, it like becomes a part of you, and you know it’s awful and it keeps you up at night sometimes; but like all that shit is just because you care a lot about these people. Sometimes it sucks dicks but once that panic goes away completely, and you stop being just a little bit worried about what’s going to happen to them _all_ the time, it means you're just dead inside.”

Meg was feeling better now, maybe not better, but the room was the right size and she didn't feel like she was drowning and that felt as close to better as she was going to get. She was just watching Michael now as he spoke, "You gotta hurt a little sometimes if it means you're still alive, it's one of life's weird fuck you's. Like the nicest people are also the biggest assholes and sometimes you have a panic attack because you care too much."

"Thanks Michael," she said softly, she wanted to let him know her appreciation, for talking her off the edge and also let him know he could stop talking if he didn't feel like baring his soul to her anymore.

"We gotta look after our own,” he said with a kind smile. He moved his arm up slightly so she could see it, "Is this okay?" he asked and after she gave him a small nod he wrapped his arm around her, pulling her into a side hug, " you gonna be okay, Turney?"

She sniffled a little bit, she hadn't even realized she'd been crying. "Thanks, god I feel like such a pussy."

He gave her a half-hearted shove before pulling her even closer, "What the fuck are you talking about? You've been through some scary shit and you didn't crack once, dude you're tougher than all of us."

"What are you talking about? I just lost it right here in front of you, and you guys were just fine."

"People handle different shit in different ways, I'm just as freaked as you are, and the same goes for Lindsay and Gavin. We’re just more used to it by now, and you lost it because you're worried about the people you care about, we've been over this. If you were just scared for yourself, when you cracked, you would've asked Gavin for a one way ticket out of here, like those bitches that were working for the Corpirate."

"You think so?"

"Know so. You're a bad bitch, Meg Turney."

"Flattery will get you everywhere, Mr. Jones."

He laughed and somehow pulled her closer as he pressed his lips to her temple. She flushed at the gesture, it felt intimate yet, at the same time, it felt like the only thing that could have happened next. "You ready to go back out there?" He asked like they were going out to face the wolves and not their friends, not to mention completely brushing over that small kiss from just a second earlier.

She took in another deep breath, letting her lungs fill completely before holding it for just a second, just to make sure she could. She felt lighter now though, now that Michael had talked to her and assured her that they were all feeling a little fucked and that her break down was far from abnormal, it made her feel a lot better that the great Mogar also felt a little panicked sometimes.

"Let's do it."

\--

Lindsay watched as Meg's face went from its normal, admittedly pretty pale color, to a pallid white and then to a sickly green. She thought back the day they met and was certain that the girl was going to be sick again. She watched as Meg tripped out of the room and disappeared into the hallway, she wasn't sure if she should follow and saw the same uncertain and worried expression on Gavin's face. Michael moved with a purpose though, moving quickly as he followed Meg out of the room. The worried look didn't leave Gavin's face, now he looked crestfallen too.

"You really like her, don't you?" Lindsay asked before she could stop herself. She knew he did, was pretty sure about it anyway. They all liked Meg. She had this magnetism about her, you just couldn't help but fall in love with her.

She was pretty sure he liked all of them, when it came down to it, knew she did; but polyamory was a difficult subject to bring up on the best of days. People didn't always handle it well, whether they agreed or not.

Gavin shrugged in answer. He wouldn't look at her now, as the floor suddenly got very interesting.

"That was kind of personal," she didn't apologize though. She didn't really feel sorry, so she just let the statement hang, he could hear an apology if he wanted to.

He shrugged again, but at least he was looking at her now, watching the same way she would, trying to figure out the way things fit together. They were all a little fucked up and a little fucked over, but she thought that was what made this a crew that might be able to pull this job off. They were getting into make or break time, and she thought this may be a crew that could actually make it; didn't think there was a crew she’d been in yet that would be able to handle it quite the way they would.

That is if they could get over this hump, she was pretty sure someone was gonna have to literally hump to do it, so they could get their heads on a little straighter.

"What do you think you're gonna do when all this is over," she asked. An olive branch question kinda, more like an apology of sorts for pushing his relationship status; and at the same time a reassurance that there was going to be an over. They _were_ going to make it out of all of this, cause Gavin really didn't look that much better than Meg did; but she figured he only barely had more experience in the field than Meg did.

"Thought about going home, to England," he made the clarification, and she wondered if it was because he had started to think of Michael’s place as home like she had. "Haven't seen Dan in a while, and whatever government work he's doing is on break, far's I can tell."

"Oh?" she said. The only thing she could really think to say, because that hurt a little bit. It was like Gavin admitting he really didn't want to be near them anymore, and if it hurt her this bad, she could only imagine how devastated Michael would be, with this being the second time Gavin ran out on him like this.

“Figure it’s somethin’ to do, while the heat dies down,” he said, not quite meeting her eyes, but more like a spot just above her shoulder.

“You know if you’re looking for something to do, I’m sure the crew would take you in.”

Gavin shook his head sadly, “Doubt that after last time, tend to hold a grudge.”

“Are you kidding? Even if they weren’t shorthanded right now, which they are, Geoff and them would still love to have a decent hacker on their team. Michael especially, would love to have a decent hacker on their team.”

Gavin startled, and actually looked at her with wide eyes, “Michael can barely stand me.” He let out a small, nervous laugh as he looked back at the floor.

“Sure,” she said stretching out that word as far as she could so he’d know how little she was buying that shit, "even if I believed that, you could still work with them."

"Don't think they're in the habit of hiring people that turned them down."

"They don't make offers to people they wouldn't want later, and since Michael can _more_ than barely stand you, I’m sure he’ll put in a good word.”

Gavin made a noise and she couldn’t decide if it was one that said he believed her or one that said he didn’t want to. “I like Michael,” she said suddenly, it wasn’t untrue but it left her mouth without much of a preamble and startled her as much as it did him, she was sure. “And I like you and he likes you, and if you need or if you want to stay, he can make sure you can. I know we’d _all_  like to have you around.”

“I might have some feelings for Meg,” Gavin said, and she wondered if there was a slightly larger confession hidden behind those softly spoken words.

“You’re a handsome guy, I’m sure she might have some feelings for you.” She knew there was one hidden in hers, hoped he’d spent enough time watching the three of them to see and hear it.

He looked like he was about to say something else when Michael came out of the hallway with an arm wrapped around a shaky looking Meg. She didn’t need the quick, frantic look to know that the conversation needed to stay between the two of them.

“Why are we sitting around bitching,” Michael asked, brash and loud and masking the same worry they all felt, “we got an early weekend, and I’m not gonna spend it crying like a bitch in the corner.” The grip on Meg’s shoulder tightened slightly before letting go, almost unnoticeable, but Lindsay had spent a lot of time while living with these three just watching and observing them.

“Let’s fucking party,” he said, handing them each a beer with a finality of a man trying to make things casual, cause if they weren’t what the fuck else was there. “You get started getting fucking drunk, I’m setting up the N64 for some retro style Mario Kart. Hope you bitches are ready, cause Yoshi is gonna hand you your ass.”

Meg smiled around the lip of her bottle as she took a small pull, “Not a chance Jones, Toad is gonna destroy you.”

This was good, Lindsay decided, they deserved one damn night where they weren’t stressed out. One night, where they didn’t have half of their thoughts on what they needed to do the next day just to stay alive.

Gavin flopped down on the couch, boneless before he’d finished his first beer, he wedged himself in the corner with both arms thrown behind it and his legs taking up enough space for two. Michael huffed, as he turned around from setting up the system, when he saw the way Gavin had sprawled out. He shoved at Gavin’s leg until he lifted it up, letting Michael settle down next to him before plopping it back down on top of Michael’s leg. Michael rolled his eyes as he shoved the controller into Gavin’s hand, with a little more force than necessary, but Gavin took it with a beaming smile at Michael and without spilling his drink over Michael’s couch or moving his leg.

Lindsay looked to Meg, who had been watching the two of them squabble with the same fond smile that Lindsay had. She gently hip checked the other girl, who turned the fond smile up at her before letting Lindsay grab her hand and pull her over to the couch. Lindsay squished in against Michael’s other side letting his hand, that was draped over the back of the couch, card idly through her hair. She pulled Meg down onto the couch with her, who let out a small laugh as she fell and landed half in Lindsay’s lap. They both took the controllers Michael offered as Meg wiggled out of Lindsay’s lap and onto the open cushion beside her.

“You two ready,” Michael asked, unable to sound really annoyed and unable to keep the smile from curling up on his face.

“Sure,” she said, “you ready to put your money where your mouth is?”

“Fucking bring it,” Meg cheered, curling forward to balance her elbows on her knees, classic gamer face on, as her tongue poked out just barely from behind her lips.

Michael destroyed them, like he promised he would, finishing his laps almost a full minute before the rest of them could. Meg came in second, sharing a quick high-five with Michael over Lindsay’s head before Michael went back to heckling their driving. “Christ Gavin, who taught you how to drive, you aren’t even going the right way.”

Lindsay finished only a few seconds after Meg, breaking off the hissed cursing she’d been doing since the girl passed her on the second lap. She rolled into Michael as Meg gave her shoulder a friendly nudge. “Third place, you’ve done better Tuggey,” he said.

Gavin threw his hands up as he finally finished the race, letting out a whoop that was really more deserving of a first place finish than last.

“What are you cheering for, dumbass, you lost.”

“Yeah but if we’d been playing on a newer game it would’ve been fourth instead of last” Gavin said with the surety of someone who’d already had this argument in their own head.

“Fourth _is_ last, what the fuck are you talking about.”

“Only, because we aren’t playing with any NPCs Michael, if we’d had some they would’ve been last and I’d’ve been fourth.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Lindsay said with a grin, only because she knew it’d piss Michael off.

They made seating readjustments at Meg’s suggestion. She’d said it was because she was squished and couldn’t see the TV, but when the two girls got up to grab more bevs, as Gavin kept calling them, she’d confessed that she was hoping that if they changed their seating they’d be able to throw Michael off his game.

Lindsay flopped her head down into Michael’s lap, something that probably would have happened anyway since she was a little drunk, since they dragged out the harder stuff. She wiggled around a little bit to get comfortable, lifting her butt so Meg could slide in closer to Michael. Gavin wasn’t really in on their plan to mess up Michael’s game, but had been going shot for shot with Michael and the difference in weight meant Gavin was much farther gone than he was; which in turn, meant that Gavin had practically draped himself across Michael. “Why are you so good at this, Micoo?” he asked, “It’s like you’re not drunk at all.”

“We haven't even drank that much Gavvy, you’re a lightweight,” Michael said grinning back at him, he was far from sober but he was definitely holding up better than the rest of them.

“One more game,” Meg said. Eyes focused on where her quarter of the screen would be with the careful deliberateness of someone who knew they were drunk enough to be distracted by anything. Like the two boys at the end of the sofa, who looked like they were one nudge away from locking lips as they giggled with, and at, each other with a drunk’s concept of personal space.

“One more game,” Michael agreed, picking out a race they’d already done once tonight, but would be easy to do in their current state.

“Then something we don’t have to think so bloody hard about,” Gavin whined, “Drunk driving is illegal, Michael.”

The three of them laughed as Gavin immediately started driving backwards on the screen. “This is a video game, Gavvers,” Michael reminded him, “I don’t think it counts.”

“Plus all the driving you do is illegal, you don’t have a license.” Meg said.

“Oh right,” Gavin said, like they’d just solved all his problems.

They didn’t have to worry about another game, Michael was done right after Meg slid in front of his kart at the last second, stealing his victory from him by inches. “That’s bullshit,” he said, not even managing to get his voice up to a real yell through his wide smile.

“Don’t be a sore loser,” Meg said, pink tongue poking out of red lips on her alcohol flushed face.

Lindsay and Gavin finished their laps not long after that, done before any potential drunk arguing could take place. Michael, too lazy to get up, left the console on as he switched over to one of the others to use Netflix. “It’s cause all you fuckers are using me as a pillow,” he claimed when Lindsay called him on his laziness.

The movie he picked was pretty shit, but Lindsay couldn’t really bring herself to care, as she snuggled down farther into what had pretty much devolved into a cuddle pile after Michael had made them all get off the couch so he could pull it out into the bed. She laughed as Meg, Michael, and Gavin riffed over top of the movie, making what she thought was either a bad comedy or a bad rom-com into something more like Mystery Science Theatre.

There was something that just felt right about laying in a tangle of limbs, just loose and laughing with the three of them. She knew it wouldn’t last, when they woke up in the morning. When they had to go back to being criminals and whatever the hell category Meg fell into now, cause it wasn’t exactly innocent civilian anymore; but for right now she was content to lay there, drunk and happy, wondering if this is what it felt like when you fell just a little bit in love with three people at once.


	12. Chapter 12

It was a strange feeling, to wake up in a tangle of limbs with three other people. It was so much warmer than you could get with any blanket, and the air couldn’t quite compete with the natural heat that their bodies put out, but it was pleasant. By the end of the weekend, as Gavin was falling asleep, he hardly even noticed how much warmer it was out on the pull out than it had been in the guest room. He even got used to waking up and seeing one of the others sitting up and awake, keeping a careful watch on the door.

The first night it was Michael, the only night Gavin had expected this to happen since they’d gotten pretty drunk the night before. Gavin woke up with his head pillowed somewhere between Michael’s thigh and Meg’s chest. He could see Lindsay breathing softly in a position that mirrored his and could feel Meg’s breathing on the back of his neck, and he knew they were both still asleep. He was the only one awake and realized quickly it was because Michael was idly tracing random patterns onto his arm with the hand that was trapped between Gavin and Meg. Michael was alternating between glances at the door and his phone, probably didn’t even realize that he was doing it. Gavin really didn’t want him to stop, thought back to his conversation with Lindsay and realized he didn’t even want Michael to know he was awake. Cause, once that happened, the illusion would be broken, then Lindsay and Meg would wake up and he would have to stop pretending that they were cuddling on a sleepy Saturday morning and go back to work.

Then Meg rolled away in her sleep, and Michael pulled his arm away slowly, killing whatever moment Gavin thought they were having. So he carefully removed himself from the pile of people, surprising Michael but making sure not to wake the girls, and went to the guest room to pretend to get back to work.

He’d worked for a little while, checked again to be sure that no one had connected Michael to Vincent or Lindsay to Elise. He buffed up the IDs he made for himself and Meg, adding a phony paper trail that went back three years to strengthen the fake documents a little, at least it'd look like an identity they’d been building for a while. He wanted to do the same for Michael and Lindsay, so they would be a little safer if someone started digging, but he then got worried that that would arouse suspicion if someone was already looking.

“Bollocking hell,” became something of a catchphrase as he tried to figure out the best way to keep everyone alive.

When he did all that, he spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between Reddit and Twitter, he wasn’t sure what he thought the alternative to sitting in this room was, but for some reason this felt better than it.

Until Lindsay came in with a drink in her hand and the tempting promise of an apartment pool that would be completely empty this time of day. So he took the offered Riot Punch and swim shorts and waited with Michael by the door so the girls could do whatever it was that took so long to get ready. He was especially curious of what took so long, when they came out in their bra and panties, each wearing one of Michael’s t-shirts over top of it, spouting excuses about not having anything else to wear. Gavin needed another drink before he could manage more than a couple of words to a shirtless Michael or the half-naked Lindsay and Meg.

They wound up back on the pullout again that night, drunk and waterlogged, and only getting up from the bed when Michael bitched at them until they changed out of their wet clothes. Then it was another shitty movie with their drunk shouting over top of it, before they fell asleep. He woke up the next morning to see Lindsay sitting up and awake, with Michael pressed to his back, an arm around his waist as the other reached blindly toward Lindsay, and Meg using Lindsay’s other side as a pillow.

Then repeat the next day.

 Until Monday morning, when he was woken up by the harsh beeping of Meg’s alarm. Meg was sitting up already and he groaned, the sound of a man who'd gotten used to waking up on his own and didn't appreciate the mechanical wake up. He heard a similar sound from Lindsay and felt Michael try to bury his head farther into Gavin's back. He was sandwiched between the two of them, and could just barely see a sleepy looking Meg sipping on her drink over Lindsay’s head.

"There's coffee made and you both have work in an hour," Meg said, her voice hoarse from not using it since waking up.

Gavin could feel Michael's sigh through the fabric of the shirt he'd taken to wearing while they were all sleeping together, but he rolled out of bed landing on the floor with more grace than he had any right to, and moved with a mindless determination toward the caffeine. Lindsay did the same on Gavin's other side, but moving back toward Michael's room and a second later, as he heard the shower start, he figured out what she was doing. It took him another second to get up, but when he did, he skipped the coffee for a more immediate solution, and chugged a red bull at a speed that was probably almost as unhealthy as the drink itself.

"You three were _out_ ," Meg said, less conversation and more a smart way of getting the two of them to wake up a little more now by forcing them to talk, "completely missed the first alarm I set for myself."

Michael hummed, a soft and content sound, and Gavin was hit by how domestic this whole scene was. The three of them standing around the kitchen, Michael and Meg with mugs in their hands and Gavin still holding his empty can, too lazy to move to throw it away just yet, with the sound of the shower mingling with their soft conversation and a tuneless humming from Lindsay. It could have almost been like they were getting ready for their normal jobs in their normal lives. He wondered what that would even be like, if it would feel the same as it did now. If Gavin was going to some shoot and Meg was going to her news station; and he could hardly decide where Michael and Lindsay would be going to work before the illusion shattered, and he remembered just where they were actually going and the danger they were going to be in.

As Lindsay came back into the kitchen, looking more awake than all of them though Gavin was quickly getting there as he thought about the fresh danger they were going to be in today, Michael pressed a mug into her hand before moving past her and into his own room. Lindsay took the glass from his hand and her chin tilted up and toward him, without thought, Gavin felt a hollow pang in his chest when the gesture wasn't followed by a press of Michael's lips to her cheek. It’s what should have followed next, it was like they were doing a dance and Michael missed his step. No one else seemed to notice.

"We'll have to be on our game today," Lindsay said, stating a fact that was very obvious to all of them, "all this extra sleep is throwing me off."

"Shouldn't you be feeling better," Meg asked skeptically.

"This job breeds insomniacs, I've known Michael for years and I've never seen him sleep this much." She turned to him, "Come on Gav you can't tell me you haven't been doing some computer thing, and stepped away, and realized that it was like a day and a half from when you started."

She wasn't wrong, not exactly, "Some computer thing?" He asked instead, turning it into a joke rather than examine why the only place in all of Los Santos he could manage to rest for more than a couple of hours at a time was Michael's apartment, a problem he didn't used to have before turning down the crew's offer nearly a year ago.

She smiled, rolling with it rather than bickering back at him, "What you do is a mystery to me, Gav, but as long as it's keeping us alive I don't really care."

Alive, that was the goal and one that was a lot easier before the Corpirate had decided he was going to be a little more hands on with his business. "We're gonna be fine, boi," Michael said, clapping a firm hand down on his shoulder and scaring the shit out of him, since he hasn't even realized the other man was back in the room. "As long as we get out of here pretty soon, we're gonna be late."

Lindsay shrugged and held up her half empty cup, "Give me a minute, I wanna finish."

"That's what she said," Meg said in a half-audible tone, almost like a reflex.

Michael looked like he wasn't sure if he should laugh or be offended, "I always make sure my partner finishes first."

The girls both turned to him with small smiles and pink cheeks, Gavin was just focused on the word partner instead of girlfriend. "Aren't you the gentleman, Michael," he said because someone had to say something.

"I'm ready now," Lindsay said, and for a second Gavin thought she was talking about Michael's… more gentlemanly tendencies. It would be a hell of a way to finally get together he supposed, maybe not what he would have originally suspected from the two of them if he'd had to guess before.

"Finally were gonna be late, what a fucking way to blow our cover," Michael said, and Gavin remembered work and how Michael and Lindsay had to go there.

"Be safe," Meg asked, concern tinging her voice as the two of them walked toward the door.

"We will mom," Lindsay said, and Meg didn't seem to mind that her worry was being turned into a joke, but that was just the way their little crew worked.

"Did you pack us a lunch, does it have a little note," Michael tacked on.

Meg rolled her eyes, but played along with their little joke, "Yeah it says I think you're an asshole, go fuck yourself."

"Just like mom used to make," Michael said with a laugh.

Michael and Lindsay left after that, and while he and Meg put their earpieces in so they could hear the two of them, they didn't worry about rushing from the room to sit behind their computer screens.

"Should we take separate routes," Lindsay asked Michael.

Gavin thought about voicing his opinion but Michael answered before he could, "Nah, the guy already knows we're there it's not really gonna make him more suspicious if we come in together."

"I guess so," she sighed, none of them were really all that convinced, but what else was there to do. They were really out of their own league and they were really starting to realize it.

"We should've just let Ryan do this," Michael said suddenly, and Gavin realized that he and Lindsay didn't know that they were listening yet, Meg and Gavin hadn't spoken since putting their own earpieces in.

"He was on a murder break," Lindsay said, and even though he couldn't see her he could hear her shrug, "nothing we could really do."

"He shot some drug dealer fuck two days ago, I think the break is over."

Gavin expected Meg to look sad, or something. He wasn't sure exactly what all had happened before he'd been recruited to the team, but he knew that if Geoff had had his way Ryan would have taken care of things quickly and with a bullet between someone's eyes. It would have made things easier on Meg, he thought, not that he would have known since he never would've met her. She could be back at work before the end of the week, instead of camped out with the three of them wondering if she was gonna be alive by the end of the week. But, Ryan had been in one of his moods, that were pretty famous among anyone who's worked inside one of Burnie's operations, and she got stuck with whatever plan they thought would be so damn foolproof.

She had every right to look pissed or sad, hearing that if she'd just waited a week things could have been over, but she looked guilty. Like she felt bad about eavesdropping on Michael and Lindsay's conversation, and she thought she should let them know that they were on the line too.

Gavin out a finger to his lips so she'd stay quiet, he wanted to hear this, and more than that thought that Michael and Lindsay needed the time to get out these private fears that they for some reason didn't think they could share with him and Meg.

"She would have had to make it the week before he decided he was over it," Lindsay pointed out. "You, well you didn't see it, but you heard about the head on the table. You _did_ see the bomb, I don't know if she would have made it."

"She's made it now," he said.

"Yeah but that's with us helping."

"We would've helped, even if Ryan was gonna take care of things!" Michael insisted, "Could've put everyone up in the safe-house at the outside if the city."

"You and I both know how that really would have gone, Michael. Its fine, the way things are, we're," she dropped off and Gavin wasn't sure he even wanted to know how that thought ended. He could see Meg unconsciously tilting her head, as if to hear the voices in her earpiece better. "I like the way things are, like how close we've all gotten. I mean we aren’t anybody’s A-team, and sure things would be a little bit better without the life or death situations but," he could feel her shrugging again, "what can you do, that's just our lives."

"Yeah," Michael half-heartedly agreed. Gavin saw his frown mirrored on Meg’s face.

"I mean I like this," he agreed with a little more feeling, "this is fucking great, having crew around all the time like this. It's like family, you know, but less shitty. I just fucking hate this helpless feeling, you know, we're supposed to helping. We’re supposed to know what we're fucking doing, and were sitting here with our thumbs up our asses, putting ourselves in more danger than we were before."

"We'll be fine," Lindsay said, but Gavin thought she sounded more like she was trying to convince herself, "let's just get through today, and if we can't do that, we'll make a new plan."

"Gavin and Meg signing on," Gavin said, didn't want to play fly on the wall any more, it was depressing. "Did you miss us, Michael?"

"Maybe Meg, but I definitely didn't miss having your stupid voice in my ear."

It was easier to play pretend, act upset and whinge and whine, than to let on that he'd heard them. Sure, he knew they were worried, they were all worried it'd be weirder if they weren't, but this bordered on bloody nihilistic.

There wasn't even that much different when they got in the door. They both sat in their spots around the table and watched with Coal, who'd probably been there since last night, as Mark Nutt slipped in the doors right at 8. They all sat in silence, Gavin wasn't sure if he was hearing the blood rushing through his own ears or Michael and Lindsay's, watching the elevator doors with mixed emotions. He had plenty of time to figure it out as they sat for hours waiting.

They were all shocked as the wall behind Coal slid open and the Corporate walked out from behind it. "Avast ye blundering fools, a fake wall shouldn' be all it takes to surprise ye."

If Gavin was worried before, he was terrified now.

The top of the Corporates head was grazing the seven and a half foot ceilings, his chest was as wide as the door frame, and there was a very noticeable sword strapped to his hip that was swinging back and forth as he made a circuit around the room.

"Ye may be aware from me message of three days past that I be not happy about some things that be aboard my ship."

His eyes were on Michael and Lindsay, Gavin could barely see them with his head barley in frame of the camera, but he somehow knew that he was staring at Michael and Lindsay as he spoke.

"You have to get out of there," he heard himself saying.

Michael and Lindsay couldn't respond, couldn't even look into the camera at him with the way Corpirate’s mass was blocking it.

"He's blocking the cameras on purpose," Gavin said, could hear how frantic he sounded but he was never without eyes in the building, in any building.

"I don't have a good feeling about this," Meg said. Gavin could almost hear the ominous music that was overlaying the scene they were stuck watching.

"I think me ship has a leak," the Corpirate continued, "and thars only one thing to do, 'n that's plug it."

He pulled an old style, flint-lock pistol from a side holster, it was almost comically large to fit in hands that could palm a basketball. It was gilded in gold, and had a hammer he had to pull back that looked like it could break a man's finger if it got caught in it. It probably shot cannon balls, like some joke weapon from a pirate themed video game, but it was so very, very real as Gavin saw it flash in the camera.

"You need to get the fuck out of there now," Meg said, and Gavin would agree, would do anything if he could do anything but sit there with his mouth open.

He pulled the hammer back slowly, and it locked into place with an audible click. Michael and Lindsay were impossibly pale as they sat at the table motionless and gripping the weapons they had hidden on their person. Nobody but the Corpirate moved as he finished his circuit of the room in a few more steps, walking to whoever he thought the leak was, walking toward Lindsay.

"You have to get out of there," there was his voice, cracked and broken. Sounding like pleading, as he wished that they would just say sod it, and get the hell out before shots were fired.

He stopped behind Michael, and Gavin's heart stopped as he wondered just why the man was still standing still. “Michael do something,” he heard himself say.

The Corpirate lowered his arm so that the massive barrel of the gun was jutting out above Michael's head, and it almost looked as if it were pointing at Mark. He was standing sideways now, giving the camera he was blocking moments earlier a full show.

The blast from the gun shorted out Michael and Lindsay's comms for a few agonizing seconds. Without sound, the picture in the camera was horrific. He watched as the back of what used to be Mark Nutt’s head exploded. Blood and brain splattered everywhere, coating the table and everyone sitting around it in a thin sheen of speckled red. The bullet finished its journey by lodging forcefully in the wall, and he was thankful strangely that the Corpirate had come to stand behind Michael or the bullet would have hit him too, as it ripped its way out of Mark.

Gavin was stunned and then felt sick that his next thought was: what would that have looked like in slow-mo. He barely finished having the thought before he was retching into the waste basket at his feet.

The sound came back just in time to hear the thud as Mark’s head smacked the table, the force of the bullet ripping through him had sent him sailing backward in his chair and, now that he no longer had the muscle control to hold it anywhere, he rocked back forward. Gavin felt sick again as he could now just barely see inside the jagged, gaping skull, squishy and red and pink.

He watched as the Corpirate looked directly into the camera and, it seemed, into Gavin’s eyes. “That be what happens when ye cross me. Next time I won’t be so kind. The next traitor that I find on board will be walkin’ the plank.”

There were small nods from around the table as he pulled a pristine, white handkerchief out of his inner suit pocket to wipe the blood from his face and monocle. He wiped clean his hands next, before sticking the now red and soiled cloth into the breast pocket of his soiled suit. He pulled out his phone and pressed it to his ear.

Gavin felt his phone buzz along with the weight of the Corpirate’s gaze. He cleared his throat as he answered, Meg deathly quiet as she watched him, and put the phone on speaker.

“David Free, you’re expected aboard ship in two hours.”

The click was as final as the click of the hammer, and had Gavin flinching at the memory. It wasn’t a request the same way the automated voice had told both Michael and Lindsay to be at work, Gavin was expected, by the Corpirate, to be there; and he didn’t want to think about what would be done if he wasn’t.

“F-wording hell,” Gavin managed to say at last, and saw the twitch of Michael’s lip and though he could only see the side of Lindsay’s face, assumed it was similar.

It was in that next second that Meg grabbed ahold of his face, gently but with a nervous force. She tugged him forward and, after what he'd had just seen and heard, he was still a little off balance. He fell forward and found himself now nose to nose with her, his hand falling into her chair bracketing her legs in an effort to keep from falling to the floor. He was ready to ask her what she was doing, when she pressed her lips against his, soft and sure of her movements, and also unconcerned that he’d just been gagging.

He kissed her back, not wanting her to pull away, or think he was anything but very interested in her, and tried to adjust for the awkward angle where he was the one looking up. He sat up slowly, using the movement to kiss her back more insistently, but let her keep her hands cupping his face and angle the kiss so his nose wasn’t pressing so painfully into her cheek.

He was sucking gently at her lower lip, trying to see what she liked. Alternating between nipping and licking at her lips, and trying to keep his tongue out of her mouth as much as possible. As he bit down on her lower lip, a little harder than he had before and she let out a breathy sigh, he remembered the comms and wondered just how much Michael and Lindsay could hear.

He pulled away, and pressed another quick, closed mouth peck to her lips while he still could, before turning to look at the screen to check on the silent Michael and Lindsay. They were both staring at their hands on the table, like their lives depended on it somehow. If it weren’t for the pink on Michael’s ears and the way Lindsay was shifting in her seat, he would think they hadn’t heard anything at all.

“The rest of you can go,” the Corpirate said suddenly, dismissing them, and the looks on Michael and Lindsay’s faces went from mildly embarrassed to terrified, as they all thought that that meant Gavin would be stuck alone with him. “I’ll be findin’ some lackey to clean up this mess, be back in two hours’ time or risk me anger.”

–

Mind numbing terror, that's about all he could feel when he heard the snap of the hammer being pulled back as the Corpirate stood right behind Lindsay.

Pants shutting terror is about what he felt when the Corporate moved and leveled the gun with the top of his head.

He had his hand on his gun, he could fucking do something with it, and he could see Lindsay's hand on hers, she could do something with it. But neither one of them moved. The sound of Meg and Gavin's frantic requests for them to move, or fight, or leave falling on deaf ears.

Then actual deaf ears as the gun exploded next to his head. The crack almost as loud as some of the more volatile explosives Michael had played around with, he was sure the ringing in his ears would hang around for a long time but not nearly as long as the image in front of him. He didn't want to think about it, but was sure it would be one more thing to haunt his nightmares.

He wondered if the sound of the gun shorted out the comms or if Meg and Gavin were just as speechless as everyone else in the room. He thought he'd at least hear the sound of Gavin's heaving, he was barely keeping his own down.

Something made even harder when he heard the Corpirate call Gavin personally, to order him into the building.

Then something in one of them must have snapped, murder and sexual tension fizzled over into Michael learning the comms did work, very well, as he heard the sounds of their mouths moving against one another and a breathy sounding gasp from Meg. He couldn't look at the camera and he didn't want to look at Lindsay either. He just sat and looked at his hands and wondered if this was some sort of personal hell: listening to two people he kinda had a thing for make out, while covered in somebody else's blood, and stuck in a room with someone who wanted to kill them.

Then the Corpirate dismissed them, that had his head snapping up to meet Lindsay’s worried eyes, there wasn’t a chance in hell they were leaving Gavin alone with this guy. But he just needed them gone to clean up the mess he made, easier to think of it as a mess than his narrowly avoided fate.

He wasn’t even that squeamish, had been through, well not worse, but he’d been in this long enough to see some fucked up shit. You do what you have to, to get the information you need, and torture works better than asking nicely when you live in a world where snitches get stitches and rats get capped. But not being scared of a little gore wasn’t the same as not being scared of getting your own head blown off, sure as shit wasn’t the same as being worried about it being your team next.

Fuck, Mark hadn’t even done anything wrong, not that Michael knew anyway, he’d gotten blown to a million pieces because of them. Innocent lives had a way of sticking with you even if they weren’t so innocent.

They couldn’t manage to stomach much of anything, so they sat in some cheap chain coffee place with a cup of whatever they’d managed to order sitting in front of them getting cold. Some switch had been flipped in Meg and Michael was worried, after the panic attack he’d coached her through a few days earlier, about just how well she was handling this.

“Gavin, hurry up and change, you have to be there in forty minutes,” she ordered.

The comm had been mostly silent before this, just his and Lindsay’s coffee order and the sound of Gavin’s typing.

“But,” he tried to argue, but they all knew it wouldn’t do much good.

“I can handle this, we don’t need to make this guy any more suspicious than he already is.”

It hung unspoken in the air, but Michael was sure he wasn’t the only person who heard, “Nervous people have itchy trigger fingers.”

“Just do it, Gavin,” Lindsay said, a more somber order from her than usual.

“Turney can handle things there, we'll be waiting up there for you.” Michael added.

It was hard to ignore the nagging voice that kept adding, “We’ll try to protect you even though we sat there like a bunch of assholes when I had a gun next to my head.”

“I don’t like this, Michael,’ Gavin said in a voice so soft the comms barely picked it up.

All he could do was sigh, and hope that someone could hear that he was trying to say, “I don’t either.”

When they got back the table was cleaned and sparkling, the chair had been replaced, and the only sign that anything had happened at all was the hole in the wall and the spot of blood on Michael’s collar that refused to come out.

Gavin slipped in and it was like looking at a different person. He kept his head down as he walked into the room, moving quickly like he hated every second he was on his feet and at the center of attention. He paused at the seat that had once had Mark Nutt, a small shudder went through him before he sat down. He sat perched at the edge of his seat, back ramrod straight with his head still bowed.

Michael was so used to Gavin’s usual brilliant and out-there behavior it took him a while to figure out just what was wrong with him. Gavin was nervous. He was out in the field, the real field, not what he could see through whatever cameras he could find access to, and he was nervous. He was submissive, or acting like it, trying to keep his head down and keep from upsetting anyone else. It was weird to see from Gavin, who was usually so excited by causing trouble, actively trying to avoid causing a scene.

They sat in silence for another hour, Coal didn’t seem to care that there was another new hire now that he had the Corpirate so close, and Michael didn’t want to drag any more attention to Gavin, both because he didn’t want to risk their cover and he didn’t want to upset Gavin any more. The quiet coming from Gavin was strange enough, he didn’t want to cause any stranger behavior on the off chance it attracted attention. The seconds dragged on slowly, just like they had the first time they were waiting, the Corpirate it seemed didn’t think he had to be held to the same time table he’d set for the rest of them.

The wall opened up once more, and the Corpirate walked out in a new suit from the one he’d been wearing when he shot Mark. Michael wasn’t sure why, since the Corpirate had been standing behind him and he’d taken most of the splatter that’d managed to reach the other side of the table. He walked up behind Gavin and if the man tensed any more he would be bent in half, not that it stopped both him and Lindsay from shifting forward in their seats arching forward like sprinters on their marks ready to intervene if it looked like something was about to happen to Gavin.

A large hand clapped down on Gavin’s shoulder, the thing could have wrapped around Gavin’s neck like any normal person’s would have wrapped around a pencil. Gavin jumped, snapped forward like the string of a bow being released but without anywhere to go.

“Welcome aboard, matey,” the Corpirate said, either not noticing how jumpy Gavin was or choosing to ignore the whole thing.

“Th-Thank you, Sir,” Gavin stuttered out.

“Now ya see what we do here, Mate Free, is we be supplyin’ booty to the good people of Los Santos.”

“Yes, sir.”

“That be what the company do, what ye be doin’ is watchin’ those others who like to compete for my business.”

Gavin nodded, shakily, and Michael wondered if Gavin was as uncertain as he was if they were supposed to know this coming in or not.

“Ye be expected to know the comings and going of e’ry shit crew in this shit town, from the ones on borrowed time, the Ballas and the Triad, to the one big ship floatin’ in our water, the Fake AH.”

Michael noted with some fascination that when the Corpirate was discussing business he lost most of that pirate voice, making him think that it was almost entirely an act not that he ever thought it was his real voice to begin with. He had a thing about voices, he couldn’t use his the way Lindsay could, but he had an ear for them. Could hear a fake accent from a mile away, knew when someone’s voice was quivering because they were excited or scared, knew what inflections meant trouble. The closest this guy had come to being a pirate was a yacht out at the docks, and when he talked business with Gavin, whatever pirate veneer he had in place started to slip away.

“I don’t appreciate those who go for my business, and we will slowly eradicate them from me city, throwin’ them from the ship and out to sea, like rats to sharks.”

Gavin was wincing and Michael realized that as the Corpirate got more worked up, his grip on Gavin’s shoulder tightened. He was a little worried that it might fracture, if they couldn’t get the Corpirate to let go of him.

He had to wait for Meg though, didn’t have anything to say about the Ballas or the Triad if Meg or Gavin didn’t feed it to him first, and he wouldn’t, and hadn’t, say anything about the Fake AH.

“The Ballas lost their dealer from the east side of town, part of a spree, looks like they’re warring with the Triad.” Meg said.

Michael began to repeat it, hoping that would get this guy’s hands off of Gavin. He didn’t like seeing them on the other man, it brought out some protective instinct in him.

He barely finished saying that it was the Ballas crew that lost their dealer, when the Corpirate cut him off. “We be past the time of worryin’ about those smaller crews. We be attackin’ the Fake AH with the single mindedness of a corporate takeover. Once we have added their ship to our armada, we can then take out those dinghies that are manned by everyone else.”

Michael shut his mouth with an audible click. He’d been successful in getting the Corpirate’s hands off Gavin, but there was no way he was giving up any information on his own crew.

Coal was eager, almost bouncing in his seat as he prepared to dish on Michael’s crew, giving out information he had no business knowing.

“Ramsey is running a five man crew, he’s looking at recruiting several new members in the coming months. He should start with a hacker, his tech defenses are weak to say the least. The Vagabond has been on a spree so several other crews are missing members.”

That was more information than he had any right to have. It wasn’t hard to get Geoff’s name, the man didn’t make it much of a secret. Coal didn’t know Ryan’s, which was good, but he took much more precaution with his name than any of the other crew members did. It wasn’t good to know that their security was weak, didn’t like finding out about it on this side of the case, but Ryan was their tech and assassin guy and he had told them before that they’d want to get an actual expert to strengthen things up.

“And,” Coal continued, “Mogar hasn’t been seen around their known hangouts in a few days.”

Shit, Michael thought, how the hell did he even know that.

“Excellent,” the Corpirate said, “Coal ye be on the path to becomin’ me first mate. Who else be havin’ news on these scoundrels.”

Michael stayed tight lipped, he could have blown that shit out of the water; but wasn’t going to give this guy anything he didn’t already have, even if they were getting rid of him in a few days. They couldn’t risk anything getting out in the time he was alive.

“No one but mate Coal has information on these laddies?”

“Ramsey and his crew are highly skilled criminals with alliances with people in higher places than we do it’s not surprising we can’t find any _useful_ information,” Michael couldn’t help but say.

“They are weak,” Coal said with that ever present smug look, getting broader like Michael had just told him it was fucking Christmas. “They have stretched their powers too thin to cover the empire they’ve created, like Alexander the Great or Napoleon it will cause their own end.”

“They aren’t weak,” Michael was fighting to keep his voice level, rage would only make things worse, “they’re waiting. Only idiots rush in, and the people that confuse finding the right time to attack with weakness aren’t really paying enough attention.”

“Do you have a soft spot for the enemy, Jones?” Coal asked and a chill went down his spine. They’d talked about being careful, and here was Michael letting his temper and crew loyalty get the best of him.

“I just don’t think you should underestimate your enemy. Even great generals have thought it was a good idea to invade Russia in the winter.” He was so full of shit; but he was glad for the first time in his life that Ryan was such a huge nerd. He’d used that line in some argument he’d had with the Gents, and it’d stuck with Michael for some reason, probably because it hadn’t made any sense in the context of the argument they’d been having.

“An excellent point, Jones,” the Corpirate agreed and Coal glared at Michael so hard he was actually a little worried it would kill him. “The rest of ye should show such initiative and cunning, ‘tis the makin’s of a true crew member.”

It made him feel a little nauseous that this guy thought he had the makings of a member of his crew, like a mix of betrayal for his own and disgust with himself for being able to find his role of obedient crew member so easily. He might have thought that Coal was a sleazy kind of asshole that you didn’t find anymore, but that didn’t mean he didn’t get what he meant when he went on his betrayal rants.

“Ye may be done for the day,” he said, “I’ll be seein’ ye all bright an’ early. Come prepared with information on the Fake AH Crew, I be havin’ some thoughts that they be hidin’ someone I be lookin’ for.”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that person was Meg, the only question was how he knew they were helping her and why he waited till know to say anything.

He didn’t say anything else about it, or elaborate on who he thought they were hiding, and the wall slid open for the final time that day as he walked through it and into whatever room was hidden back there. It was a dismissal as clear as the first and Michael was fine with leaving this fucking awful place early, the only thing about this job he could even imagine missing was the crew, and that didn’t really take much imagination. If Gavin and Meg’s make out had made one thing clear, it was that there was something between them all, but the sweaty sleep pile they’d been using probably made it clear first. That something would have to go somewhere when they split though, but it had to be acknowledged before they could find it a home.

Gavin and Lindsay had already taken an elevator down. He’d been out of his seat almost as soon as he’d been given permission to leave, getting him used to field work might take some time. Lindsay had gone with him since the elevators only fit two people, and she’d made it a point so far not to get in one with Coal.

Which left only him and Michael in the room together, and it left only them to ride down together. He didn’t think either of them were very happy about it.

They rode down in an uncomfortable silence, one that made him certain Coal had spent a long time planning his death in increasingly creative ways, it wasn’t like Michael could say he hadn’t done the same.

When the elevator doors dinged open, Michael took the first step to get out. He fought every instinct he’d been born with and taught, so he didn’t turn and slug Coal as the hand closed around his upper arm. He allowed himself to be pulled back slightly, his hand very obviously on his holster. Coal took the remaining step forward, when he could no longer force Michael to move any closer. He leaned in, so his lips were almost brushing the shell of Michael’s ear and whispered, “I know who you are, Mogar.”

Fuck.


	13. Chapter 13

“He knows who you are, Michael, stop acting like this isn’t a big deal!”

“It fucking isn’t” Michael insisted, like the stubborn asshole he was, like they hadn’t been having this conversation since the three of them walked through the door two hours ago, “he knows who I am, he didn’t say shit about you two.”

“That doesn’t change that he knows who you are, Michael,” Gavin said. “How the hell did this happen?”

“I don’t know, _you’re_ the tech guy, you tell me what the hell happened,” Michael said. Meg knew the jab wasn’t really meant, and Michael was more upset with himself than he was Gavin.

“This isn’t Gavin’s fault,” Lindsay said, not that any of them really thought it was. Except maybe Gavin, who had a habit of blaming himself for things he had no control over, and who had just stopped fussing with his phone and computer in an effort to find a source for the leaked information.

“No, I know it’s not anyone’s fault,” Michael said. The annoyed tone in his voice still building, until he turned to look at Gavin and his face softened, “It’s not your fault, boi, I just wasn’t careful enough.”

“How did he know it was you,” Lindsay asked, for maybe the third time, but it was definitely a question they needed an answer to. They kept letting themselves get caught up in worrying about the smaller issues and forgetting about the biggest problem, which was that Coal had figured out that Michael was Mogar.

“Fuck Lindsay, I don’t know,” Michael cried out, all of his frustration returning with that one statement, “I don’t know how the fuck he knows anything about the crew.”

“Did you call Geoff,” Meg asked, she wasn’t sure if that would actually do anything to help. She thought there was a small chance Geoff would send back up, or better yet just send Ryan to finish the job. It was a really small chance, when she thought back to how much Geoff really didn’t want to send Ryan with them the first time they met with him.

He ran a hand through his hair, tugging at the curls in frustration, before answering, “Yeah, told him about the security issues, asked about a potential leak.”

“What’d he say,” Lindsay asked, the room getting deathly silent as they waited for what would hopefully be a solution to their problems or at least an explanation for things.

“The only people who know where we are, and what we’re doing, are him and Ryan. He said he just told Jack and Ray that I was working on something for him, that they didn’t need to worry about.”

“He didn’t even tell Jack?” Lindsay asked, “Jack’s his right hand, why wouldn’t he tell Jack?”

“Fucking I don’t know, why did I learn that Geoff is hiring like eight new crew members through fucking Coal. Because Geoff has a lot of shit going on at once and only tells us what we need to know.” Michael sounded pissed now, more than he did about anything else. Maybe it was being left out of crew business, or maybe it was hearing that more crew members were being let in.

“Did he say anything about why Coal might know this?” Meg asked, hoping to stop any arguments before they could start, or at least delay them until they got things moving a little more.

She was sure that they’d all have to talk about this eventually, was sure there would have to be a long talk about what was happening after this, especially after she kissed Gavin this afternoon. Michael would probably try to get him to take one of the open spots on the crew, Lindsay could go back to being an assassin, and Meg had no clue what would happen to her, maybe she would just continue this life of crime thing it wasn’t the worst thing she’d ever done.

That was something to worry about after she was sure she was going to make it out of this, they hadn’t found much but dead ends. It was starting to wear on them all. “Geoff said he doesn’t have a fucking clue, but he’s sure we don’t have a leak from the inside,” Michael answered.

“Does it have to be from the inside,” she said, as she thought about what she’d learned about her time with the crew, they weren’t exactly covert. She’d known Michael for five minutes before she knew what his name was, and Lindsay shared hers right off the bat. “What if it’s coming from outside the crew?” If it was a habit of theirs, to share information with people they worked with like this, it could be coming from anywhere.

“Outside the crew, what the fuck are you talking about, that’s the fucking point it’s outside the crew.”

“No, Meg’s got a point,” Gavin said and she wondered if he actually knew what her point was or if he just thought he did, “you have people like me you only bring in for one job, they could have said something that they overheard.”

Lindsay nodded along, “Or every time Geoff is too drunk to get something he wants, and uses some favor app, so someone will pick it up for him. Someone is probably going to say something about how they delivered a pizza to a house in the middle of nowhere to and some guy in face paint and leather answered the door.”

“Why is Ryan answering the door if it’s Geoff’s order?” Michael asked.

“Because it’s a safe house and Geoff’s drunk and won’t get off the couch, probably because you’re lying on top of him just as wasted, so Ryan got the door.”

Then Michael got what she would almost call a sheepish look on his face, as a thought clearly occurred to him through their teasing. “Geoff might have said something about some of our safe houses being burned because we were caught going into them hot after a heist,” he admitted.

“Which explains the known hangouts that Coal mentioned. Someone who lives nearby or followed you there must have talked to someone.” Lindsay said.

“But not how he knew I was Mogar.”

“What if you told him that,” Gavin said.

“What the fuck are you talking about of fucking course I didn’t tell him,” Michael said, hackles rising.

“Not that you told, told him but you still told him.”

“That doesn’t make any sense! How did I tell him without telling him?”

“Maybe he’s good at reading people, you aren’t exactly subtle, Michael.” Gavin said.

“He’s got a point, you get all tense and yell a lot more when the crew gets brought up,” Meg said, listing some of the more obvious body language cues she’d noticed while posted in front of the cameras.

“Then that argument you had to get in with him, that wound up in fucking Russia, yeah if he wasn’t already thinking it, you pretty much told him,” Lindsay added.

“Alright, I fucking get it. I can leave then.” Michael said throwing his hands up in front of him like he was trying to stop the rest of the conversation.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Meg asked, wondering if she blacked out or missed a comment or something that made what Michael had just said make sense.

“I mean, he thinks it’s me, I can leave and we can still make this work.”

“No, we’ve spent too much time together,” Lindsay said, “and after that name fuck up, if you’re gone, he’s just gonna move on to suspecting me of something.”

“What, no he won’t, we’ve been careful enough to avoid _that_. If I leave we can still make this work, we’ll just have to speed things up a little.”

“Even if he doesn’t know we’re working together, which I doubt, when you’re gone all of a sudden he’ll know he was right. You might as well say that’s why you’re leaving.”

“He won’t know shit,” Michael insisted.

“It won’t matter,” Meg said, she already knew Lindsay was right but the longer she thought about it the more right Lindsay seemed, “you not coming back will be as good as an admission of guilt. He’ll tell the Corpirate what he thinks, and if it doesn't start a war between him and the Fake AH Crew, it will start a witch hunt in the company. It’ll be like McCarthy hunting for Communists, it won’t matter if you’re guilty or not when he wants you gone. We’ll be the first on the chopping block when he starts thinning the herd.”

“We can just move things up,” Gavin said, trying to bring some optimism to her spiraling negativity. “We can pay Coal off, or threaten him, or somethin’. He’s the only one we have to be worried about right now, once he’s gone we’re back on schedule.”

“That’s not going to work, he’s made it clear that he’s not going to go just because we throw some money at him,” Lindsay said.

“Then what are we supposed to do about him?” Gavin asked.

Meg sighed, she knew exactly what they needed to do, and wondered if any of them were actually going to say it. Probably not, as much as she appreciated that they were trying to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, and she knew they were doing it for her sake, that wasn’t a reason to be stupid.

“There’s only one way to make this thing go away,” she said.

“What are you talkin’ about, Turney?”

She didn’t like having to say it, and she really didn’t like that she didn’t really care that she was saying it, “We’re going to have to kill him.”

–

She knew Meg was right, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t a little shocked to hear the words come out of the other girl’s mouth. She was a lot shocked at how easily it seemed to leave it, when she hadn’t even wanted to say the words just a week or so earlier.

“I’m sure that’s not the only way to make things go away,” she said.

“We could just kidnap him,” Michael suggested.

“And that would work for how long,” Meg said, “until you had to let him go?”

“Well,” Michael was shifting his weight from foot to foot. Meg had caught him in, not really in a lie but definitely in a half-truth. She’d picked up on the business much faster than she had any right to, or at least picked up on some of its finer points.

“Cause once you let him go things are going to go to shit again, and he’s gonna want us dead. So you’ll just have to kill him anyway, so all kidnapping is really gonna do is delay the inevitable and give us one more thing to worry about,” Meg said.

“Are you sure, I’m sure we can come up with some way around this,” Lindsay tried, she really didn’t want the girl to feel like she had any more blood on her hands than she already did.

“It’s fine, what’d you say? Seven billion people on the planet and we’re just killing one, quit complaining.” She didn’t sound as convincing as she was trying to be, throwing Lindsay’s words from earlier back at her.

If she were gonna guess, Meg was probably still a little shaky on this kind of thing gonna moral ground, but at least she trusted them enough to suggest it.

“Alright,” she agreed, trusting Meg to make this decision for herself. It was the one they all would have come to eventually. Though she, and probably Michael, would have avoided it for as long as possible so Meg didn’t feel any guiltier than she had to.

“How’re we gonna do this,” Michael asked. She recognized the serious look on his face from heist planning, and knew there would be no more argument from him. He’d probably been thinking about killing Coal since day one, she was sure he had several ideas of where to begin already.

“We could call one of the other RWBY girls to deal with him,” Gavin suggested, “maybe that way we aren’t a suspect as soon.”

Lindsay thought about it for a couple seconds, “How long do we have?”

“We need to take care of this tonight,” Meg said, “the longer he’s out the more likely it is he blows Michael’s cover.”

“When could one of the other girls get in?” Michael asked, apparently siding with Gavin that this could be their best option. Not that she didn’t agree, that it was a pretty good idea, just maybe not the most fun.

“Not soon enough to make it a good option,” Lindsay said. She didn’t even know where the other three members of RWBY were right now, let alone if they’d take this job for free just because she asked them. They were close, but a girl had to make a living somehow and an I-owe-you-one only goes so far.

“We could copycat,” he suggested, and she had to fight a grimace. There was no way she was doing that, it wasn’t right.

“Or not,” he said, when he saw the look on her face.

“Just do it the normal way,” Meg said. Lindsay almost laughed because, what normal way.

Every hitman, assassin, and gangbanger had a different style, even the same execution could look different when done by two different people. She settled on just saying, “There’s no normal way of doing this.”

“What do you mean, they do it the same way every time in the movies.”

“This isn’t a movie,” Gavin pointed out.

“No shit, but you can do what the hitman does in all the movies to get rid of him.” Meg said with a very dramatic roll of her eyes.

“That wouldn’t get tied back to us,” Michael said in agreement, “too boring for anyone to think it was Ruby Rose. Not explosive enough to be Mogar.”

“They might think it’s Ryan, he’s on a spree apparently,” she said, not wanting to poke holes but she did want to make sure all her bases were covered.

“When’s the last time Ryan killed a guy he didn’t look in the eyes first? I swear to god, the freak gets off on it.” Michael said.

“Alright, if you’re so sure that this isn't going to lead to a war between the Crew and the Corpirate the I’ll get on the roof across from his building and take him out,” Lindsay said.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m going to snipe him, unless you had another plan?”

“Yeah,” Michael said, voice rising as he said something he clearly thought was obvious, “it involves me on the roof and not you.”

“ _I’m_ the professional here,” she said, stressing each word as she wondered why the hell they were having this stupid argument again.

“Then what the fuck am I,” he asked in a strained yell, as he tried to keep from shouting in her face and failed. His hands braced on the counter between them to give him the leverage to push himself up, so he could get even closer as he was yelling in her face.

“A demolitions expert, who’s going to be way out of their league,” she said, failing to keep her temper in check as much as he was.

Her job was one of the few things that could get her worked up like this, the whole business was full of guys and she got sick of people talking down to her like she shouldn’t be there.

She could see Meg and Gavin out of the corner of her eye as they watched. They didn’t seem to mind, or be affected by the argument at all. They seemed more worried about whether they should take the other’s hand as they reached toward each other and then pulled away, like two kids on their first date who couldn’t decide what to do.

“Out of my league, my ass,” he wasn’t even trying not to shout anymore, “I’ve done hits before, Lindsay.”

“Sniping people off buildings doesn’t count, I’m talking about a professional hit.” She was leaning across the counter to shout in his face. They’d almost met in the middle of the divide, practically nose to nose as they were shouting loud enough that she hoped the downstairs neighbors didn’t hear.

“That’s exactly what we’re fucking doing!”

Meg and Gavin were still just watching and she could see the looks on their faces, they almost seemed amused. She could just barely see where their pinky fingers had now twined, like her and Michael’s screaming match was their date night movie.

“No, it’s _not_ , it’s a hit! Not picking off cops from the rooftop like it’s a game at the fair.”

“What’s the fucking difference?”

She didn’t know the answer, well she did, but didn’t know how to say it. There was a feeling that was different, that she couldn’t explain, but it mattered if this was going to work. It was like the difference between intentional and accidental, like the difference between murder and manslaughter, it was there and you could tell when you saw it, like you could feel the intent behind the action. She couldn’t stand the smug look he got on his face, he was so quick to assume he’d won, and he wasn’t right just because she didn’t know how to tell him he was wrong.

It was instinct, as she reached up from the counter to cup his head in her hands and pulled him the small distance they’d yet to cover and kissed him.

He was frozen and still against her, her hips were digging into the counter and she could feel the weight of Gavin and Meg’s eyes on her. She was beginning to think she’d made a huge error in judgement. Just as she started to pull away, her hands falling from his face, she felt his come up to cup hers, pulling her gently back as he returned the kiss.

It felt like years of tension were ebbing away as he sucked her lower lip and bit down on it. She gasped at the roughness of the kiss, and how it countered how gently he was cupping her face, and as she did, he slipped his tongue into her mouth.

Everything about kissing Michael felt natural, like it was something they did all the time in some other life. They met in loose, open mouth kisses and she felt her hand reach up and tangle in his curls. She pulled at them roughly and, as he gasped, she pulled him impossibly closer to swallow the sound.

She would have been content to share breathless, sloppy kisses with him for the rest of the night. She felt the urge to move from his mouth to his neck; to leave him panting and moaning as she bit and kissed his neck, leaving him marked. She pulled away to take catch her breath, ready to move farther down, when a soft cough had her pulling away completely.

She turned to find Meg and Gavin watching intently, or Meg was, Gavin had suddenly found something very interesting on the floor though the pink on his cheeks gave him away for watching.

Meg had an iron clad grip on Gavin’s hand and her face looked close to the same shade of red as her hair. “Hate to break thing up,” she said voice rough, like she was the one who’d been interrupted mid-makeout, “but we are in a bit of a rush.”

Lindsay nodded and left the kitchen, grabbing Michael by to collar to leave him with one last bruising kiss before heading back to his room. Just past his closet, he had a small room dedicated to his explosives and firearms, at least the ones he didn’t use that often anymore. She had just the gun in mind for this job too, and she was certain it was back there.

She heard Michael trying to pass the decision to let her go off as his own, “Ruby Rose is an assassin after all, she can pass it off as a professional hit.”

She came back into the room, smirking at Michael’s swollen lips and vaguely dazed look. “I’m taking your semi-automatic rifle, feels like that kind of night.”

Michael looked like he was going to say something else, but she shut him up with a third harsh kiss, pulling away with a bite to his lower lip, already loving that she could feel how kiss swollen she’d made them. She really should have started doing this a lot earlier, it was a much faster way of shutting him up and a lot more enjoyable too.

“I’ll be back later,” she said, still standing close enough that they could share the same breath.

She darted forward and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. Gavin and Meg were still watching them both with careful eyes and, before she could spend too much time thinking about it, she moved to do the same with both of them. Watching as Meg and then Gavin’s eyes bugged impossibly wider as her lips pressed against their cheeks.

They both looked at Michael like they expected him to freak out. A little understandable, she supposed, Michael was known for his occasional freak out and they did basically hook up right in front of them a minute earlier. It was something that they were definitely going to have to talk about later, along with a lot of other things, she was sure.

Michael just smiled kind of dopily back at them and Lindsay figured she should go ahead and leave before she got dragged into anything else. She walked out the door, and she could feel their eyes on her, as she left.

“I’m gonna marry her,” he said in a dreamy, faraway voice, and in spite of everything that had happened _that’s_ what had her blushing. She was grateful that she was turned away and he couldn’t see the way those four words had affected her.

She was almost out the door when she heard Meg add admiringly, “Not if I beat you to it.”


	14. Chapter 14

Breathe in, breathe out, steady eye and steady hand, Lindsay thought. She was on the roof across from Coal’s apartment, Michael’s rifle balanced on its raised lip.

She had Coal in her sight, tracked him through the floor to ceiling windows of his apartment as he paced. She didn’t know what had him so worked up, she didn’t really care, just needed him to hold still long enough for her to take her shot.

As she was thinking it, he stopped and stood in front of his large window. She almost dropped, worried he saw her, before she remembered how far away she was and how much farther up; there wasn’t a chance in hell he could see her up here.

He started pacing again.

She hadn’t been on the roof long, and was still trying to see if there was a pattern to his movement. She hoped that she hadn’t just missed her one shot, she could try to hit him while he was moving; but didn’t want to risk missing as she tried to account for wind, distance, and Coal’s pacing, it was bad enough trying to work with the first two.

She worked on steadying her breathing, in and out, as she watched him move through her scope. Waiting for him to stop in front of the window again, where she had lined herself up perfectly, watching now as he walked in and out of her sight. She had to make this shot perfectly, couldn’t afford to miss or even worse hit him non-fatally.

He was standing still again now, looking out at the city, but more importantly, he was doing it through the window Lindsay had aimed at.

Breathe in, breathe out, steady eye and steady hand. Line up the shot, another breath in, hold it, and squeeze.

She rolled with the recoil of the gun watching with the usual morbid fascination as the bullet travelled faster than she could track. The crack of the gunshot echoed through the closely spaced buildings, the only thing that saved her from Coal moving from his spot was how common it was to hear the echoes of fired weapons past.

The shot moved so fast she lost track of it until she heard the sound of it breaking glass, the bullet reaching speeds fast enough that it didn’t shatter the window more than a small radial point around the hole. Coal barely had time to see the glass breaking before the bullet pierced the space between his eyes.

The look of surprise was etched permanently into his face, eyes wide as the red spot appeared in the center of his face, a few drops managing to leak down his nose before he collapsed to the floor. She didn’t bother to hide her smile as she slowly packed away the rifle, she’d never had any problem taking pride in a job well done, and this was certainly a job well done.

She took her time getting down off of the roof, she had no problem with leaving that asshole to rot, literally, for a while. She placed it in the back of her car before checking herself in mirror, she’d left the apartment before having a chance to change and now she was thinking it might be a good thing. She had to get into Coal’s building somehow to make sure there wasn’t any evidence that might put the blame on them.

She’d pulled her hair back while on the roof, an old habit from the days where people actually put any effort into catching her, it was a small way to keep the physical evidence to a minimum. She untied it carefully, letting it fall back loose around her shoulders before running a hand through it to try and artfully muss it up.

“I don’t know how Gavin manages to do this every morning,” she said to herself as she gave up trying to get her hair to do what she wanted it to. She had a very specific character in mind that would hopefully get her into Coal’s building, it’d worked before for his type.

She used her mirror to carefully re-apply the red lipstick she’d been wearing earlier, the stressed out lip biting at work and the less stressed out lip biting at home had left it smudged and nearly gone. Not that she regretted any of the things she’d done at home, and the red color she was wearing looked as good on Michael as it did on her; but that was a conversation to have after several others that they kept ignoring.

After finding the shirt she needed to complete the look she was going for, she glanced back at Coal’s apartment building. It’d been close to thirty minutes since she’d shot Coal and if he hadn’t been discovered yet, he probably wouldn’t until he started to look a little worse or she called it in herself.

She’d worried that the sounds of breaking glass, the body hitting the floor, and the gun shot from earlier would have someone suspicious because, unlike the other two they had already dealt with, Coal lived in a nicer building. Nice enough, that after half an hour the first responders would have showed up if they’d been called.

She strolled into his lobby and up to the doorman. She leaned up against the desk and watched as the only thing he could look at was her shirt, or more importantly what was in her shirt, she didn’t even have to fake a smile. It was tight, low cut, and about a two sizes too small. That and the mussed up look she had as she walked in had him looking at just about everything but her face. The best mask was one that you weren’t wearing.

“I’m here for a Mr. Coal,” she said pitching her voice so it was husky and low, “he said I should go up to his room.”

The doorman looked her up and down for a minute, she wondered if that was even the identity he had his apartment under. They only knew that Coal lived there at all due to some clever camera work from Gav. If that was the problem then she burned herself and would have no way of getting back into Coal’s apartment.

“You’re a different girl than usual, did he give you an apartment number?”

Lindsay could have sighed in relief, she knew she’d been pretty spot on when she thought Coal would be the type to bring in call girls.

“No, he didn’t.”

“23 B, you said he’s already expecting you?”

Lindsay could hear the distrust in his voice, that while he believed what she was saying in theory, he wasn’t sure he trusted her. She glanced down at her watch, stalling for a second to come up with an excuse.

“He is, and I was supposed to be up there five minutes ago. So, if you don’t mind.”

She said it with enough brisk attitude that he forgot whatever distrust he had in her and buzzed her through.

She snapped on a pair of latex gloves in the elevator, it was bad enough the doorman had seen her, she wasn’t going to leave prints on the off chance someone actually investigated. She would be the last person seen going into Coal’s apartment and while Gavin would hopefully be able to scrub her from any security feed, the doorman would still be able to tie her to the scene. It gave her outfit one more purpose, other than being a close dupe of the unofficial call girl uniform, it would hopefully make sure that all the doorman downstairs would be able to describe was a pair of tits and maybe her hair color when someone finally did come to collect the body.

She might have had an apartment number for Coal now, but she realized quickly once she got to the door that she didn’t have a way in, she was debating whether it was worth it to run back out to her car to get her actual picks. She checked both her pockets hoping to find something that would help her get into the room, Coal didn’t seem like the type to give the neighbors a spare key and there wasn’t a hide-a-key anywhere in sight. All she could find was her phone and wallet. She didn’t think she’d found anything of use, was very seriously wondering if it was going to be detrimental to her cover if she had to leave and come back, _until_ she remembered the small card she carried in her wallet, a gag gift from Michael from forever ago. It was billed as an emergency lock pick kit, the size of a business card and made of a thin metal. She cringed a little as she punched out the flimsy tools and prayed to whoever might be listening that these might actually work.

It took twenty minutes longer than it would have if she’d brought her actual kit, and more swearing than she’d used on a lock since her first time picking up the skill; but she finally got into the room. As she walked in, she was hit by the distinct smell of recently dead body.

She walked up to the corpse, gagging a little at the smell of piss and shit that only got stronger as she got closer. She reached down toward the body, and though she could already see the discoloration of the skin starting, she still checked for a pulse. She did it for everybody, even the ones she had slit from ear to ear just to make sure no one came back that shouldn’t.

It didn’t really matter that he was already turning purple and he was starting to look like wax, she still checked and strongly resisted the urge to make this a Ruby Rose signature, she didn’t have a knife on her but she was sure there was one in the kitchen she could use. Once she was sure he was dead, she left him sitting where she found him, she didn’t have anything else she need from him.

She wished she had something specific to look for, but now with Coal lying on the floor behind her she just had to sort through all of his shit looking for something that could tie them to their identities so she could get rid of it. She thought about asking Gavin, thought he might be able help her get into his computer or something; but she quickly remembered that she left her earpiece at home. Leaving her on her own to deal with the search, no big deal, and leaving her with three people back at home who probably weren’t going to be so excited that she’d been MIA for an hour, bigger problem.

There wasn’t much to search through, even though Coal’s apartment was big enough to hold Michael’s inside of it. There was nothing on any of the counters in the kitchen and the drawers were empty too. She groaned, not bothering to be quiet, it’s not like she was going to disturb the dead body with her noise. “This is why I don’t fucking do this shit,” she said as she moved on to the bedroom and found it was almost as empty as the kitchen. She decided quickly that subtly could go fuck itself as she tore clothes out of drawers and sliced open the mattress, “There’s a corpse in the living room, it’s not like someone isn’t already going to know that I’m here.”

Still, in doing that, she found absolutely nothing, and she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. She had been almost certain that if Coal had any evidence that Michael was Mogar he would keep it somewhere, and he wouldn’t have accused Michael if he didn’t have any evidence to prove it. She only had one more room in the apartment that she could search through, as far as she could tell, and she was hoping it was an office.

And for fucking once, she was in luck.

The room was mostly empty except for the wide desk with the computer sat on top of it. She walked up to it and, on a whim, wiggled the mouse hoping it would be unlocked, it wasn’t because she would never get that lucky. She was certain that any information Coal had on them would be on the hard drive of the computer. The computer that she had no access to because it was locked. She couldn’t exactly take it with her to have Gavin fix the problem.

She glared at it for a minute, wondering if she could just melt the thing with her eyes. When that plan failed, she called Gavin hoping he might have an answer.

“Lindsay,” he answered, and he sounded worried, “are you okay?”

If Gavin sounded worried, that meant that Michael and Meg must be just as bad.

“I’m fine Gav,” she said.

He either didn’t hear her or was choosing to ignore her. “You didn’t take your comm with you, and we didn’t hear from you, and we got worried that something might have happened. Did something happen? Does Coal have you?”

“Coal has her,” she heard Michael’s worried shout, she could practically feel him making some half-baked plan to come rescue her.

“I’m _fine_ Gavin,” she said again, louder this time so he could hear her over his worrying, “and tell Michael the same thing.”

She waited until Gavin relayed the message before saying, “Hey Gav, I’ve got a question.”

“Yeah, what?”

“How dead does a computer have to be before you can’t pull anything off it?”

“Before _I_ can’t or before _someone_ can’t?” he asked with the careful emphasis of consideration.

“Either, both,” she said as she continued to stare at the blinking tower.

“Most people probably wouldn’t be able to get anything off of it if it were good and smashed,” he said, “if it looks like that I could probably still get something off it unless it was dropped offa building or somethin’.”

“Can’t bring you a desktop, Gav,” she said, “it’s not like I can fit it up my skirt.”

She could, however, fit the tower just out of the window in front of her.

“He could have backups somewhere,” Gavin said.

Lindsay paused for a second before deciding if it did it almost definitely died with Coal. “If he does it’s not on his computer,” she said, “I’ll try to bring you his phone.”

She could hear Gavin asking, “Wait, what’re you gonna do?” as she hung up.

She looked at the tower again, pausing for just a second to think about whether or not this was a good idea.

The way she saw it, the only way Coal would have backed things up and told anyone about those backups is if he actually thought his life was in danger. He thought he knew Michael was Mogar, had tipped his hand in telling Michael he knew, would that be enough to convince him that he was actually in danger. If it were, she imagined he’d have something in place, some sort of failsafe that would reveal who was responsible in the event of his death.

There really wasn’t any way to get the PC out of the building, at least not out the door. She wasn’t going to take it apart, even if she wanted to, she didn’t have the tools to do it. Normally she’d try to move over its contents to a portable drive, but she couldn’t get in the computer to try. She knew Gavin wouldn’t be able to break in if he didn’t have the computer in front of him, certainly wouldn’t be able to talk her through it. She decided that it was safest to just get rid of the computer and hope Gavin could get anything he needed to off Coal’s phone, assuming she could find it.

She pushed open the window in front of her, annoyed and not for the first time in her career, to find that they were suicide proofed. She winced in anticipation as she slammed her elbow into the joint, breaking it just enough to push the window open a little wider.

She ripped the tower out of Coal’s set up, leaning out the window to shout a quick, “Heads up!” She hoped that the people on the ground heard and listened to her as she dropped the tower out of the 23rd floor window.

She listened closely until she heard the sound of breaking electronics and heard the shouted, “What the fuck is wrong with you?” from some random civilian on the ground. When she didn’t hear any terrified screaming she assumed the only thing she’d killed was the computer.

Her heart stopped in her chest when she heard a phone ringing, just as she was shutting the window. Worried that this was someone calling to make sure Coal was still alive. Until, that is, she realized it was her phone ringing.

“What Gavin,” she snapped, fear becoming anger that she took out on him.

“Not Gavin,” Meg’s voice was coming through her speaker, “but it is his phone. The one you hung up on earlier if you remember.”

Meg sounded worryingly calm and it made Lindsay feel a little bad about snapping at her, “What do you need?”

“You’re on speaker, by the way,” she said before she actually said what she called for, like Lindsay hadn’t already assumed that she was, “we’re worried, ya know, cause you went all renegade; and then when you do finally call an hour later, you ask about smashed computers and then hang up.”

She thought renegade was a little melodramatic, but they were a team, and she had run off without giving them the game plan. She wasn’t used to working with a team like this, even with as long as she’d been a part of this one; and she was trying but it was hard to remember that she needed to do a lot of sharing after she’d been working as a solo player for so long. Something that also applied frighteningly well to her love life in relation to these three as well.

“I know, sorry, kinda expected Michael to be at the end of this talk, to be honest.”

“Hey,” he said, “I know how to work with a team. I also know how to bring my comm with me.”

“And listen to you try and give me advice on how to snipe, no thanks.”

“Can’t be any worse that your commentary on Shadow of Mordor.”

“I am a Lord of the Rings expert,” she said, something she’d insist on till her dying day. “Ask Gav if he can get what he needs to from Coal from his cell.”

“Well I’m going to bloody have to, everything from police radio to social media is going off about how you dropped the computer from the roof like a mingin’ psycho.”

“Well that’s just not true,” she said, “I dropped it from Coal’s 23rd story apartment, like a regular psycho.”

“Do you have the phone yet?” Michael asked.

Lindsay winced, realized she hadn’t moved since answering her phone. She was grateful for the lessened sensitivity of the phone, was certain they would’ve heard her hiss as she made a face. “Not yet,” she said, “but I’ve almost got it.” Which wasn’t a total lie, she didn’t have it yet and she was sure she’d get it before she left.

“Well hurry up,” Gavin said, “you’ve been there almost two hours.”

“And keep us on the line,” Michael said.

She’d checked every room in Coal’s apartment already, and hadn’t found his phone. Every room, except the couch behind him in the open living area. She gagged a little as she remembered the smell of shit, and how strong it was in the room, but that had to be where his phone was.

She started at the edge of the sofa, as far from the body as she could get, and she started moving end to end, lifting up the cushions and reaching her arm into the sofa’s insides as she went. When she still couldn’t find anything she sliced each cushion open in the hope it might be there.

After sitting in the floor for more than a few minutes, staring at the yellow insides of the couch cushions and having long since gotten used to the smell, she heard the voices coming from her phone and remembered that she still had them on the line. She could just barely hear their voices as they shouted, asking what was going on, and she reached into her back pocket, where she’d stowed it out of habit while she was working.

She had her phone in her hand, halfway through answering when her eyes fell on the body in the floor.

Fuck, she knew where the missing phone was.

–

The last they’d heard from Lindsay was her shouted “Fuck, I know where it is,” before she hung up.

It’d only been twenty minutes, but Michael was still a little worried, no matter how many times he reminded himself that she was more than capable of handling herself. She had made that very clear more than once, and had made a very convincing argument, not that he’d needed convincing.

It also didn’t keep him from pacing, a new habit, and one that had Meg threatening to break his legs if he didn’t hold still. He actually believed she might do it, Meg had adapted pretty quickly over the course of the heist and Michael got the feeling that if she stayed in this a little longer she could make a pretty decent criminal.

When Lindsay finally walked through the door, they were on her in seconds. Michael got there first, since he was already standing, with Meg right behind him and Gavin still trying to push himself off the couch. They were all trying to ask if she was okay and what happened after she hung up. She stopped them all in their tracks with a raised hand, when he stopped Michael could tell there wasn't anything physically wrong with her, but she did have a look in her eyes that said she was still deeply uncomfortable with something she’d had to do.

She tossed a plastic baggie at Gavin before pushing past them all and into his bedroom. He shared a look with Meg as they both tried to figure out if they should follow her, they heard the shower start followed quickly by the sound of Gavin losing his fumbling battle with whatever Lindsay had thrown at him.

“Don’t fucking break it,” he said, rolling over the side of the couch to sit beside him Meg took the arm just behind him.

They all flinched away when Gavin opened the bag, which held two phones in it, and a strong smell they hadn’t noticed until it opened. Meg jumped off the arm of the couch and Michael flinched back with her, Gavin was much less subtle and flipped over the back of the couch, leaving the bag where he’d just been sitting. He was gagging and Michael was a little worried about his floors. He wondered if he should start putting trash cans around, for Gavin’s gag reflex, before he remembered that he had no clue how much longer he’d have Gavin living with him.

“What’s that?” Gav asked through his heaving.

Michael figured out where Lindsay found the phone, “Smells like shit,” which also explained the uncomfortable look she had.

He was a coughing mess as he looked over the sofa at the baggie, “Fecus, why?”

Michael shrugged, the smell really wasn’t that bad once you got over the initial surprise of it. “It took Linds like an hour and a half to find it.”

“What’s that matter?”

“Where do you put your phone when you aren’t using it, Gav,” Meg asked.

“In my pocket, oh,” Gavin said as things made sense for him, then he started gagging again and Michael wondered if that had more to do with the reason he stayed behind the scenes. A hair trigger gag reflex like that wasn’t really an asset anywhere, but especially not in a field as messy as theirs.

“Why are there two phones, she found both of them on him, so what does he need them for?”

Gavin crawled back over top of the couch, and dumped the contents of the bag out onto the coffee table in front of him, Michael couldn’t help but wrinkle his nose in distaste, though there was probably nothing actually wrong with the phones in theory, they still smelled kinda rank and he ate at that table sometimes. Gavin avoided touching the devices as much as possible, “Looks like a personal and a burner,” he said hand hovering above each in turn. “I can probably pull something off the iPhone, but unless someone calls the flip phone it’s pretty worthless.”

“What’re you gonna do if someone actually calls the burner?” he asked. Michael could only think of one reason anyone but a drug dealer would have a burner, and it was because there was someone on the outside who was going to call and make sure Coal hadn’t been killed that night, that if he was something would probably get released to the public, something about Michael’s identity.

Gavin, for his part, just shrugged, there was nothing they could really do. If Gavin answered the phone it would be immediately obvious to whoever was on the other end that Coal was gone, and whatever information he had would be shared. Meg, however, seemed to have a solution to the problem Michael had posed. “What about that thing you’ve been messing around with all week?”

Michael tried not to look nervous, it was never good not knowing what your team was doing like this and he was worried that even after all of this Gavin might decide that he didn’t want to stay. “That’s just messin’ around,” Gavin said.

“Messing around with what, if it can help it doesn’t matter what the fuck it is.” he said.

“Well, Coal is a chatty bastard and we don’t really do that much until the end of the day, so I made a soundboard of some of the stupid shite he’s said.”

“Are you fucking kidding? And you didn’t think that would be helpful?”

Gavin shrugged, “Didn’t think it would be.”

“Go see what you can get off his iPhone, we’ll just have to wait and see about the burner.”

“And don’t forget to bump Meg to the top of the list, we should wait till the burner gets a call before we call in Coal’s death,” Lindsay said as she walked out of the hallway, toweling off her wet hair.

Gavin scooped up both of the phones in the baggie and headed into the guest room to work on the phones.

Lindsay curled into Michael’s side and he kept from flinching away from the cold of her wet hair on his neck. He shifted her so she was up in his lap, allowing Meg to slip into the spot she’d been in before and moving Lindsay’s legs into her lap. They sat quietly for a moment, Lindsay had her head pillowed against his chest and Meg was leaning against his shoulder. “You okay, babe?” he asked her, feeling bad about breaking the peaceful quiet but concerned all the same about her.

“It was just really gross,” she said with a deep sigh, not bothering to lift her head. “Like the worst kind of looting, I haven’t been that grossed out since my first hit.”

“Did something happen?” Meg asked, rubbing at Lindsay’s ankle in comforting circles.

“He fell on me, a little, while I was lifting him up to check his body. It’s stupid, but I was lifting him up to get at his back pocket and he fell on me and I knew he was dead, but if any of these fuckers are going to come back from the dead it’d be him. Then I thought that even if he didn’t he could still pin me under him, and he was heavy I’d’ve been stuck and who knows if I could’ve called for help.”

“We would have come for you,” he said, “Wouldn’t leave one of our own behind anywhere.”

She made a small sniffling sound, but didn’t say anything else. Michael knew better than to say anything about the sound, the show of any kind of weakness was unusual for her. He pressed a small kiss to the top of her head, then another one to her cheek when she pulled away from his chest with a small, watery giggle. Meg couldn’t quite reach her face, but grabbed her hand, rubbing her fingers across the girl’s knuckles before pulling it up to press to her lips.

“Thanks, guys,” she said quietly, her voice muffled where she was pressed into his chest. He could feel her lips moving as she said something he couldn’t quite make out but almost sounded like “love you.”

Gavin came back not long after that, settling down beside Meg with the burner phone and a tablet in his hands. “Did you find anything, Gavvy?”

Gavin shook his head, “Far’s I can tell he was bluffing when he called Michael out. I can’t find anything that says he had a clue who you were. I did find two hidden accounts that each had a couple million in ‘em split those up between us, and made a separate account for Meg for when all this shite is over.”

Michael could feel Lindsay’s hum vibrate deep in his chest, “Good, we’re actually getting paid for this job.”

Michael felt like he should ask if Gavin found anything else, like if Gavin was sure there was absolutely nothing about him on there, because even a blind guess at knowing he was Mogar was frighteningly accurate. He felt like he should ask one of those things, or anything when the burner phone that was sitting on the table in front of them started to buzz.

They all went silent, Lindsay perked up and sat up straight in Michael’s lap. Meg was tense beside him as Gavin made a few quick taps on the tablet in his hands before answering the phone. The tablet was flat in Gavin’s lap, the screen resembled something like a keyboard and as he tapped a few quick buttons Coal’s voice rang out from it, “Coal.”

The quality of the speakers in the phone weren’t great but they managed to make out the voice on the other side, “Boss, we finally gots that shipment you sent over. What’s you want us to do with it?”

“Do your job,” Gavin made Coal’s voice say, “that’s why you’re here.”

“I knows Boss,” Michael decided this was Coal’s henchman that they were talking to, but he had no clue what shipment he would be talking to, “but youse said to call when it came in, said youse was worried about your boss noticin’ the missin’ stock.”

Michael shared a wide eyed look with the girls on his either side, Gavin had his eyes locked on the tablet in front of him. Coal was somehow stealing some of the drug stock from the Corpirate and selling it on the side, he’d been right about one thing though, the only people who used burner phones were drug dealers.

“Do what I had you do last time,” the tablet said, “and do it soon.”

“Whatever youse say boss.” The call ended with a click and they all let out a breath that they’d been holding in a futile effort to stay quieter.

“Way to go, Gavvy,” he cheered, “how’d you do that?”

Gavin shrugged and seemed almost embarrassed by the compliment, “Coal talks a lot, and it gets boring sitting there sometimes so I recorded bits of conversation and deconstruct it into key words and sounds and I attach them to the keys.”

As he said it, he typed a little bit on the tablet on his knees, and Coal’s voice said, “Jones, you can suck my dick.”

Michael laughed, “Coal never said dick, I’m pretty fucking sure of that.”

“Key sounds,” Gavin said, “lets me make words that Coal hasn’t said.”

“Now that we don’t have to worry about that,” Lindsay said, “we should let someone know Coal is dead.”

Gavin nodded, leaving the keyboard app and opening something else. They all watched as his fingers brushed across the touch screen, somehow doing whatever he needed to make sure no one could trace things back to them. He locked the tablet a few minutes later and they sat in a tense silence as they waited for Meg’s phone to ring.

It was the Corpirate’s voice that greeted them when Meg’s phone finally rang a few minutes later. She jumped and fumbled as she tried to get her phone out from under her to answer. “Miss Turney, ye be expected aboard tomorrow morn at eight sharp. Your presence is ordered, not requested.”

She flinched at the click as he hung up, and placed her phone down on the table before curling back down into the sofa. “What exactly is the plan?” she asked.

“We’ll go into work,” Michael said, realizing that they really didn’t have one, “and we’ll take him out with one quick shot.”

“Seriously,” Meg asked.

“What? It’s not like he’s expecting us. The Corpirate already said he’d been in the office all week, so we know he’s going to be there and why would he expect us to do anything different than happened yesterday.”

“That’s it?” Gavin asked, “We just walk in glack him and leave?”

“If we’re lucky,” he said, “not really sure what else there is too it.”

“What if he is ready for us?” Meg asked. She didn’t sound worried, just like she wanted to throw out any problems they might have before they actually had them. Michael wondered if she was as okay with all of this as she was trying to sound or if this was all just too far in the future for her to really feel anything about.

“We’re ready for him, so even if he’s ready for us we can take him.”

“Is that how it works? We’re all ready for each other, but we want it more so we win?”

“Even if he’s ready for something, we know he won’t be ready for the Fake AH Crew and Ruby Rose, at most it’d be like a couple of people out for blood.”

“But we are a couple of people out for blood.”

“Yeah but we also have a secret weapon,” he said wondering if that was a bit cheesy and over the top for what they did actually have.

Lindsay sat up at that, twisting to look at him, “ _We_ have a secret weapon? Something to go against that cannon ball shooter he used on Mark?”

“We have Meg,” he said, which sounded a lot less impressive when Lindsay brought up the gun they were going up against.

Meg for her own part, looked at him before she started to laugh so hard he could feel her shaking. “What the fuck am I gonna do?”

“He’s not expecting you, so when _you_ come in with a gun and shoot him we get the element of surprise like twice.”

“I’ve never even _held_ a gun let alone shot one,” Meg said, “I think you need to pick a new secret weapon.”

“Don’t you want that feeling of revenge?” Lindsay asked, “This guy tried to kill you, and you don’t even wanna try to be the one who takes him out?”

“I can show you how,” Michael offered, agreeing with Lindsay that the best kind of closure was the kind that came after watching the guy who’d been trying to kill you get got. “Or you could just use my mini, you don’t really need to worry about accuracy when you can empty your clip in like ten seconds.”

Meg turned, turning so she was leaning against Gavin’s chest so that she could turn to face Michael. “No, no,” she was shaking her head almost violently, “just no, that’s like the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”

Michael shrugged, Meg wasn’t a fan of guns not a problem, even though his mini was fucking sweet, “What about you, Gavvers, wanna take the shot.”

“That’s the worst idea Michael,” Gavin said, taking Meg’s hand as she was now half-sitting in his lap. “I’m awful with a gun, they’re banned in the UK it‘s not like here where you can get one in under an hour.”

“Fine, guess it’s one of us then,” Michael said, bouncing Lindsay up in his lap laughing as she smacked him because of it. “You wanna take the shot, or should I?”

“Do what feels natural, planning shit out like that just makes it more likely to go wrong,” she said.

“Do what feels natural, huh?” he asked, leaning in and pressing a slow, soft kiss to her lips.

He could feel her smile before she pulled away, “Fucking sap.”

He reached over and put his hand on top of Gavin’s, where he and Meg had interlocked their fingers. “You should really learn how to shoot a gun,” he said, “even if it’s not very well.”

“You too, Gav,” Lindsay added, leaning so she could add her hand to the mix, “you’ll both be safer.”

“Aw Micool, are you and Lindsay worried about us?” Gavin asked, shooting for joking but not making the mark.

Michael gave his hand a quick squeeze, “Course we are, dumbass.” He was wondering why Gavin would even think otherwise when he had an idea. He looked back at Lindsay, not asking for permission but checking with her that this was even the right thing to do, making sure that he wasn’t massively misreading the situation. She nodded, with her teeth worrying her bottom lip, and a smile in her eye as she shifted in his lap so he could move.

Using the hand that wasn’t already covering Gavin and Meg’s he grabbed ahold of the man’s chin. He pulled Gavin down to make up for the height he lost leaning in over, Michael’s chin was hooked over Meg’s shoulder and Gavin’s face just a breath away. He waited, letting Gavin decide if he wanted to pull away or not, and when he didn’t after a second Michael pushed forward that last bit to connect their lips.

It was a short kiss, not much more than the two of them pressing their lips together, but as Michael pulled away slowly he hoped it was enough that Gavin got that they cared. Not like he wasn’t perfectly willing to repeat the gesture until it sunk in. Actually, that felt like a really good idea and Michael did just that, moving back up to kiss the man again. Gavin had been still against him the first time but now he met Michael in a loose, open mouthed kiss. Michael could feel Meg’s shoulder digging into his chest as he and Gavin moved together in a slide of lips.

He pulled away from Gavin a second time, smiling as the man followed him forward just a little. He looked to find that Meg’s shoulder was digging into his chest as she was leaning between the two of them to meet Lindsay in the same gesture.

He and Gavin watched as the two of them. It was softer and sweeter than Michael would have expected with the two of them, not after how hot and heavy things had almost gotten in front of Addams’ apartment. The two of them parted when they felt the boys’ eyes on them, cross eyed as they kept their eyes on the others’ mouths.

He nudged at Lindsay’s shoulder and she pulled away that last little bit from Meg’s mouth. She smirked at him, and with a wink replaced Michael’s hand with her own on Gavin’s face. She pulled him over so his head was on Meg’s other side, Meg turned toward Michael and giggled as he pressed his lips to hers. Her lips were still slick from her kiss with Lindsay, and she was smiling as her lips moved against his. He huffed out a laugh as she nipped at his lip, pulling away with a grin.

They all sat there for a second, Meg grinned, wide and infectious, and then they were all smiling as they were catching their breath. Michael settled back into his spot on the couch while Lindsay wiggled around trying to get comfortable again. Despite the size of Michael’s couch, the four of them were squeezed onto two of the cushions.

“We’re gonna get out of this,” he said, “gonna take this bastard out.”

“Maybe after all this, you could teach us how to shoot,” Gavin said, looking at a spot somewhere on the wall just over his shoulder. “We could go to the shooting range, the four of us.

Gavin looked a little nervous as he waited for an answer from one of them. “I was thinking dinner first,” Michael said, “the firing range is more of a second date.”

The three beaming faces that were looking back at him didn’t fade for hours as they stayed curled around each other, gaming into the late hours of the night to distract themselves from what they had to do the next day. It was easier to pretend that things would definitely go the way the wanted to when they were close together, with plans for the future.


	15. Chapter 15

They woke up early the next morning, wrapped somehow impossibly closer to each other than they were when they fell asleep. They’d spent the last couple days squeezing four people onto a pullout bed with a minimal spillover onto the rest of the couch. To get any closer than they already were would mean fusing together; but they managed somehow, she woke up with Meg actually laying across her and the boys and the girl insisted she didn’t know how she got like that.

Lindsay ended up just getting up with Meg to help her put her become less recognizable, starting with making sure her wig was on straight. She helped Meg section it off and curl it into a soft brown wave, well helped was a strong word, but she definitely watched while Meg did it all.

She wasn’t unrecognizable, but by the time they finished getting her ready she at least looked a little less like Meg Turney and a little more like, well the closest she could come to describing it was she looked like that B-list celebrity that you saw in everything but could never quite remember the name of.

She could tell the other girl was nervous, could see it in her eyes and the way her hands were just barely shaking. Meg was flitting about Michael’s room where the two of them were getting ready, the boys were still half-asleep, curled around each other on the sofa bed. She grabbed Meg around the waist, pulling her down to where she was sitting, "I know you're nervous," she said, "but you're freaking me out and you're gonna make yourself sick."

Meg grimaced, ready to apologize, when Lindsay cut her off, "Don't apologize for being freaked, just take a deep breath and tell me how I can help you feel better."

Meg paused and Lindsay was willing to bet she was counting her breathing the same way Michael used to. "Just tell me for real, is this really going to work? Or are we walking into a death trap?"

"We might be walking into a death trap," Lindsay answered honestly, “but that’s what we’ve been doing all week. We’re gonna watch out for each other, nothing’s gonna happen to you, okay.”

“Can you really make that promise?” she asked, looking down at the ground at the corner of the bed. She was the picture of nervous resignation, and Lindsay wanted to bundle her up and leave her in a place where she wouldn’t have to worry about being in any danger.

“Wouldn’t make it if I couldn’t keep it,” she said, sneaking a quick kiss to the tip of the girl’s nose just to make her smile. “C’mon we’ve got a foolproof plan, we’ll be fine.”

“Are simplistic and foolproof really the same thing?”

Lindsay laughed with her, “For us they are. Just wait until you’ve seen how over the top a snatch-and-grab can get when you’re dealing with the Crew. A detailed plan just gives you more ways to fuck up and we don’t need the help.”

Meg let out a sigh, a release of breath that was as much a release of stress as it was the air she’d been holding. Lindsay could still see the worry in the tight line of her shoulders, but she knew it was nothing like what the girl had been feeling before.

“Tell me what I can do to help,” Lindsay repeated.

“I need something to do with my hands,” she said.

Lindsay smirked, but didn’t make a comment, and Meg, realizing what she just said rolled into Lindsay knocking their shoulders together as she tried to push her off the bed. “Not what I fucking meant, asshole. Let me do your hair, so I have something else to focus on.”

She easily agreed, and Meg flipped behind her and started braiding her hair. They weren’t in any rush, and Lindsay was more than happy to do whatever it took to make Meg feel better.

She was feeling lulled by Meg’s rhythmic movement, the feel of her twisting and pulling as she arranged Lindsay’s hair. Michael came in while Meg was doing that, he watched for a second as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He said a rough sounding, “Good morning,” to them both.

As he walked farther into the room, they saw Gavin had a grip on the hem of Michael’s wife beater. He was following behind Michael with sleep filled eyes and grumbled out something that might also have been a good morning as he was pulled into the room by his grip on Michael. Gavin let go of Michael’s shirt and flopped face down onto large bed beside them while Michael went back into his closet to get ready.

Lindsay ran a hand down Gavin’s back as his breathing evened back out, careful not to move her head while Meg was still braiding. “You’re gonna have to get up sometime, Gav,” she said.

“It’s too bloody early,” he said, voice muffled by the bedding, “and you lot kept me up too damn late.”

“You weren’t complaining about it last night,” Michael said as he came back out, pulling on his sleeves as he struggled with the links like he did every morning.

She motioned to him, making him come closer so she could do it for him, like she did every morning. She pinned them quickly, smoothing down the sleeves while he bickered with Gavin, another part of their morning ritual. “Well it was fun last night.”

Meg finished with Lindsay’s hair, letting her move now. “Are you not having fun, Gavvy?” Michael said.

Gavin sat up to glare at him, “No Michael, for some reason I don’t find getting up at the arse of dawn as fun as watching Lindsay suck that hickey on your neck.”

Michael laughed, fingers coming up to brush at the bruise on his neck that was just visible above his collar before leaning over and ruffling the man’s hair because he knew it would annoy him. “We can mark you up next,” he said, “since you’re so full of the vin.”

Gavin was gaping at Michael as the man went back into his weapons closet, Lindsay smirked at Gavin’s face and at her own handiwork. She’d gotten a little carried away the night before as they’d messed around. It was just some sloppy make outs, nothing farther than she would have gone on her parents’ couch as a teenager; but second base was a lot more intense when there were three other people involved. Just cause Michael’s was the most visible didn’t mean the rest of them made it out without a mark or two.

Michael came out with an arm load of weapons, “Nothing to say to that boi,” he asked.

Gavin shrugged getting up and getting ready, but stopping to see what Michael had brought out with him, Lindsay had to admit she was curious too but not enough to get up just yet.

“Michael, you’re going to be armed to the teeth if you go in with all that.”

“This isn’t for me,” Michael said, and that was enough to get her interested enough to get up and look.

He had three different handguns and six knives spread out in front of him. Gavin ignored them all in favor of moving to get dressed, but she and Meg filled the spot he left.

“I’m not using one of those,” Lindsay said.

“They aren’t for you either,” he said rolling his eyes, “wouldn’t want you tainted by my knives.” She wasn’t going to call him on it, but she heard his muttered, “Weirdly monogamous for someone with three partners.”

Well it went mostly without comment, she couldn’t help but add, “I have more than one knife, and they’re actually weighted right.”

“If they aren’t for you and they aren’t for Lindsay, you can’t actually expect me and Gavin to carry all that shit.” Meg said, already an expert at stopping any argument that she wasn't a part of in its tracks.

“Not all of it,” he said, “just enough to make sure you’re safe when you go in.”

Meg gingerly looked over the things Michael had spread out. She focused on the knives, keeping  her hands far from the small arms that he’d set out. Meg picked up a small, serrated blade, gripping it loosely as she held it up, almost presenting it to the two of them.

Lindsay took it from her, wanting to look it over a little closer. It wasn’t a bad knife: five inch blade, nine inches total, not that badly weighted, and serrated at the base. If Meg was going to carry something, this wasn’t bad. She shared her approval and handed it back to her.

The girl took it in the ginger hold of someone who didn’t know how to use a knife for anything but cooking. Michael noticed at the same time she did. “No, take it like this,” he took her hand and carefully repositioned it around the hilt.

Lindsay then placed her hand over top of Meg’s, “A knife like this, you’re gonna swing through like this,” she helped her roll through a jabbing motion, then another, and another, moving slow so she could get an idea of how it should feel. “It’s a close range weapon so hopefully you won’t even have to use it.”

Meg took a few more practice swings until her movements became more fluid, unfortunately for Gavin, who stepped out from getting ready and found himself nose to blade with Meg’s new toy.

“Bloody hell,” he squawked and Meg pulled the blade away from him and in close to her chest.

“Sorry Gavino,” she said, handing off her weapon to Lindsay before she moved to her tip toes to press a kiss to the tip of the nose she almost sliced.

Gavin put his hands on her waist and placed a responding kiss on the top of her head, “‘s alright, Turney, little early for knife play ‘innit?”

“This is more ‘it’s dangerous to go alone’ than it is ‘slice me so I can cum’,” Michael said, grinning as he saw how his comment made her and Meg blush. “Pick something, you aren’t walking out of here weaponless.”

Lindsay took Meg aside, confident that if Gavin needed help with whatever he chose that Michael could handle it. She was more worried about making sure Meg could get at her new knife if she needed to and that it wouldn’t be seen while she wasn’t using it.

“Don’t freak out,” she said, “cause I’m gonna lift up your skirt.”

Meg giggled, “That’s not something I usually hear from someone I spent the night making out with.”

“I’m a gentlewoman, who would never take advantage of a lady such as yourself,” she said throwing a dramatic hand over her chest.

“Well I do declare,” Meg said in a dramatic southern accent throwing her hand up to her forehead like a wilting southern belle. Lindsay made sure to roll her eyes as dramatically as possible at the girl’s antics, Meg was kinda a huge nerd when it got down to it but then they all were and maybe that’s why they thought they should try this in the first place.

Lindsay pushed gently on Meg’s shoulder leading her down to sit back on the bed. She kneeled down on the ground between the girl’s legs, she reached up and flipped up the hem of her skirt, fighting the urge to blush the whole time. She placed a hand on Meg’s knee to still her leg as she looped a makeshift sheath around her garter so it was now hanging from the elastic. Lindsay took the knife Meg had chosen and sheathed it carefully before tucking the dangling, covered blade into the thigh-highs Meg was wearing. She ran her hand down the girl’s leg smoothing out the material and making sure the knife was lying flat against her leg. Lindsay grabbed the hem of her skirt again and rolling it back down her leg and arranging the sheathed knife so that it wasn’t visible under her dress.

She looked up at Meg and found her staring intently at Lindsay’s hands with flushed cheeks. “There,” Lindsay said running her hand down her leg one more time, “hidden but easily reached.”

“Save that shit for later,” Michael said startling them both, like his hand wasn’t halfway down the back of Gavin’s skin tight pants as he helped him hide his gun, “we’re gonna be late.”

She got up from the floor between Meg’s legs, extending a hand to help the girl up. They were now standing chest to chest, Lindsay not having stepped back before pulling Meg up from the bed and giving her nowhere to go but close to Lindsay. “We’re gonna be just fine,” she assured her, dropping a kiss to her forehead and a bop to her nose before stepping away. They really did have to go after all, it was getting close to eight and god knows what would happen if they were late.

When they made it to the building Lindsay could feel something was off before they even walked in, whatever element of surprise they thought they had was gone. The building looked exactly the same as it did the day before, and every other day that they’d worked there, but there was a feeling she couldn’t shake that they were getting ready to walk into a trap. She could see the other’s felt the same, Meg and Gavin were shifting on their feet while Michael clenched his hand in want of a weapon. They didn’t risk pulling their guns before walking in though, but they were both ready and it would only take a second for the both of them to be armed and ready.

The lobby was empty as they walked in, more empty than it had been any other day they’d worked there. Foxy’s desk sat vacant and the only sound in the room was the sound of Meg’s heels as they walked across the wide empty space. It was freaky enough that Lindsay pulled her gun, and she saw Michael do the same. They were walking through the room before the boss battle and it didn’t take a genius to know you went into meet the boss with everything you had.

Nothing happened when Michael put his card in the slot, no elevator showed up, no grunt popped up out of nowhere. So they tried Lindsay’s, and nothing happened again, they had no way of getting up to the Corpirate as the doors in front of them stayed sealed. Michael brought a frustrated hand down on the card reader in front of them before trying his card again, with the same results.

Frustration had them stepping away, moving to check the desk that had been abandoned for some reason. They each took a section to search, Lindsay had only opened a couple of the mostly empty drawers, they were filled with blank paper and half used nail polish bottles, nothing that would be that helpful to getting out of the lobby. It only took a few more seconds before Meg was triumphantly shouting, “Found something,” and holding up a card with ‘Turney’ written across a post it.

She went back to the door and used her new card in the slot, Lindsay had to admit she was surprised when the elevator in front of Meg didn’t open. Then she heard Gavin’s gasp, where he was still rifling through the desk as she turned to see what was wrong she saw that instead the wall on the opposite side of the room from them had silently opened.

The elevator that Meg had accidentally opened was large, larger than the one they’d used the day before, and they were easily able to fit the four of them inside comfortably instead of the usual two. There were still no buttons to press in this car, and the doors shut behind them as soon as they all stepped through them. Lindsay had long gotten used to the feeling of someone watching them, and it didn’t take long to find the camera blinking at them. The Corpirate was waiting for them wherever he actually was, they’d completely lost that element of surprise now.

They’d been expecting trouble since they first gotten to the building, and if the first sign they were right about that was the empty lobby, then the next was when the elevator came to a stop around four floors sooner than it should have.

The doors dinged open and they were greeted by the Corpirate, who was bracketed by three men who were built almost as bulky as he was. The three of them were almost identically, tall and broad and built like every tank she’d ever dealt with. Just one of them was easily twice her size and the three of them standing shoulder to shoulder filled the whole room they were standing in. The three of them were wearing matching scowls, and the only way to really tell that there was any difference between them was the scar running down the middle one’s face. Other than that, they were all wearing the same white shirt and had the same bulging arms that were carrying the same huge automatics that were trained on them. As intimidating as they looked, they were still standing just behind the Corpirate who was there waiting front and center for them. Their element of surprise was well and truly gone now and even worse, it had been flipped around on them.

Lindsay knew they had two choices: get out of the elevator and fight or get forced out; and if she was going to have to leave whatever relative safety they had in the elevator, she was going to make sure she was between Meg and the person who wanted them dead.

Every time she did something new with this team, there was a fluidity to it that she was almost amazed by, it was like they were pieces of a puzzle that were just now coming together, and now was no different. They moved out of the elevator together, the four of them moving in sync as they stepped out and into the small room with the Corpirate and his weirdly identical lackeys. The doors closed behind them blocking them in almost as soon as they were out of the thing, and in that same step forward, she and Michael put their less experienced teammates behind them, giving Meg and Gavin a shield in front of them and a wall behind them.

“Ye be comin’ aboard,” the Corpirate said, “I been waitin’ for the four of ye, but you seem to be right on time.”

As he said it the lights went out plunging them into blackness, then all they heard was a scream.

–

The lights cut out and Michael knew they were dead, or they would be if they didn’t move fast. He reached for whoever was closest to him, grabbing ahold of their sleeves and yanking roughly, pulling them to the ground. He hoped that one of them would grab their fourth and bring them down with them, he only had two hands and he couldn’t reach their last member. Then he heard the scream and knew it was Meg, remembered that she was the one on the end farthest away from him and that she’d been grabbed.

Then there were the shots.

Michael knew what was happening, he had enough adrenaline in his system that his mind was flying a mile a minute, the Corpirate had grabbed Meg as soon as the lights had gone out and now his fuck head lackeys had opened fire on them. Michael had grabbed Lindsay and Gavin when the lights went out and pulled them with him to the floor, he knew once it went dark that they were in trouble. They were up against the wall with nowhere to go, sitting ducks for anyone that wanted to take them out.

It was an old trick, dirty, to get a group in the open like that and make it dark to disorient them, catch them off their game and then fire where you know they haven’t moved from. Michael had seen it before and had the knowledge to pull the two to the ground in that half-second of darkness before the shooting started. He’d been acting on instinct as he’d pulled everyone he could reach down to the ground, an instinct he was thankful for now as he heard the rapid fire gunshots.

In all the shooting, he could hear that where the shots were hitting were nonlethal or he was pretty sure they were. Where they were pressed against the ground, it was hard to tell exactly where they were landing but the shots sounded like they were landing a little too close to where their heads were, like they were aiming for their knees. He had no idea if that was the plan. The Corpirate had grabbed Meg in the confusion and now Michael had no clue if, after that part of the plan, the Corpirate wanted them dead or just injured; it was entirely possible these assholes were just shitty shots but even they had to hear the ping of bullets hitting metal and not flesh.

The room was still dark and the shots were still coming when Michael nudged Lindsay. The thing about this trick was it worked two ways, the people being surprised held still and the people doing the shooting never thought to move either. The room they were in didn’t have a lot of places to move to even if they had, and those hulking assholes took up a huge chunk of the room.

He felt Lindsay shifting beside him, moving from where he’d just pulled her to the ground to take a position that would make it easier to fire. He had his pistol in his hand and he tried to imagine just where they’d been standing before it went dark. He had twelve shots in his clip, and another clip with him if he got the chance to use it, plus a revolver strapped to his ankle if he could get to it, he needed three shots for the Corpirate which left him plenty to deal with these fucks, even if they weren’t where he thought they were.

He placed a mental copy of the three shooters where he remembered them being. It took seconds to squeeze off three quick rounds where he thought they were, not bothering with the extra effort it would take to make them nonlethal. He couldn’t hear Meg anymore, there had been the single scream when she’d been grabbed but now there was nothing. He _could_ hear the sound of bullet tearing through flesh and the sound of three more shots being fired off by Lindsay and hitting their mark.

The lights came on at the same time the three bodies hit the floor.

He pushed himself up from the floor, offering a hand to the other two to help them to their feet faster. There was only one place that the Corpirate could have taken Meg, only one other door in the room. He hadn’t heard anything from the room since her initial scream and Michael was terrified at the thought of what that might mean.

They moved with a careful purpose toward that room, stepping over and around the three collapsed bodies. They had already been surprised by the three guards and any more scares would not be good for them, the last thing Michael wanted was someone getting hurt because they rushed in without thinking.

The large room held only the Corpirate and Meg, the two of them standing in the center of the vacant space. He had a thick hand wrapped around Meg’s neck, loosely grasping her but even that was enough where his thumb and fingers were touching. Meg was forced to stand on her tip toes so that she wasn’t dangling from his grip and even then, she was struggling to keep her toes touching the ground. The look of fear in her eyes made his blood boil, he’d promised she would be okay and look at where she was because of him.

“You killed even more of me men, this‘s quite the bloody venture. But I been waitin’ for ye.” He bared his teeth, huge and yellowed, as he looked down at her, “Waitin’ for you especially Miss Turney, but seein’ as ye brought me such temptin’ guests I’ll let you watch as I dispatch them first.”

“Get the fuck away from her,” Michael growled, gun out and pointed directly between the Corpirate’s eyes.

He laughed, cocking the gun he was levelling with Meg’s temple and smiling cruelly as the action had Michael stepping back. She was struggling in his grasp as much as she could, but even the loose hand he had latched around her neck didn’t leave her much room to move. “Ye be watchin’ yer smart tongue Mogar or your fair lassie be payin’ for it.”

Michael didn’t lower his weapon but he took another small step back, not wanting Meg to get hurt in any way because of him, whether that be because he didn’t step back or because he put his weapon down and the Corpirate took his shot. He didn’t know how the man knew about him but he was sure he’d find out, this asshole seemed like the type to monologue before he tried to kill them.

“Surprised that I know who ye be, Jones. I know who all ye be. Was a bit offended when I saw that Ramsey couldn’ send the Vagabond to try an’ kill me but I be more an’ fine with killin’ any member of his half rate crew. I be knowin’ that you be Mogar from the first day I be seein’ ya, watched you in that camera and knew that ye be comin’ for me.”

Michael was shocked, they’d gotten rid of Coal to keep his identity a secret and now it seemed like it didn’t even matter. That it had never really mattered in the first place.

“Are ye aghast? Mogar be a familiar face to me, I need to be thankin’ ye for gettin’ rid of Coal. I be a little ashamed at how long it be takin’ him to figure you out, he be not as clever as he be thinkin’ he was, but he been filchin’ from me stock that’d been givin’ him more to think about than our enemies.”

He was monologuing now, just like Michael thought he would, like he was an actual fucking villain instead of some low rent, mobster with a hard on for pirates. He had yet to do anything with Meg, she was still dangling from his grasp and watching them with scared, but trusting eyes, and Michael was sure that she would be safe until he finished his spiel. So they had to silently come up with a plan before they ran out of time. He tried to communicate what he wanted her to do without alerting the Corpirate.

“Now I don’ want your dear Matey Free to think he be the reason I been toyin’ with ye. Had your dear Captain Burns not relied on him so heavily in years past, might not have known you was there but we been lookin’ for you since we started trackin’ the fair lass. I’ve had my men lookin’ for your handiwork from the moment I knew that my hired assassin had turned and gone to the Fake AH. Even on the lookout for ye we almost missed your work, but once Mister Jones showed up we had one more thing to look out for.”

Michael couldn’t see Meg’s knife anywhere, had spent the time the Corpirate was speaking searching the floor for it, and hoped it meant it was still strapped her leg. The Corpirate didn’t have her arms pinned, and though she had one wrapped around the hand around her neck to try and loosen the grip, the other dangled by her side. If he could just find a way to signal to her, to get her to reach just a little farther down and grab the hilt of her knife.

“The four of you have done admirably,” he said, “ye are hardly the team ya send after a large bounty but I’ve had a hearty laugh at watchin’ Ramsey’s pet gunner try to stowaway among me men with his virgin crew.”

Michael was brushing at his thigh hoping that Meg would see and take her knife and do something. She was looking at the three of them, but he wasn’t sure if she was actually seeing what his free hand was doing in the few seconds he could drop it from his gun and to his leg.

“I’ll still be puttin’ you down though, I’m afraid, there’s nothin’ to do with a rabid dog like you Mogar but put them down. ‘S a shame though, I seen yer work with a cannon if I could turn you into a well behaved mutt I would keep you. Your friend though, I could use a man aboard as capable as ye Free, what’ll it take to get you to turn coat and join me?”

“Go to hell, bastard,” Gavin spat, and even he’d pulled his gun and had it trained on the Corpirate at this point. The only person still unarmed was Meg, who was tugging at the hand around her neck more insistently as his grip tightened.

“Such a shame, ye shall regret that decision soon. Now don’t be thinkin’ I forgot you Miss Rose, it’s a shame you be workin’ against me now. You made assassination much more affordable when I could just sink them from right in front of you, but now you’ve become more trouble than ye be worth.”

He turned his sneer back down at Meg, “And now we be back to you my fair lass, I be surprised when you survived two attempts on ye life; but when it be clear that ye used yer wiles against my primary assassin, I decided to let ye live fer just a few days more to see what ye be doin’. Then Mogar shows up and I see ye with Ruby Rose outside one of my men’s house and I be knowin’ that it just be a matter of time before I can get rid of all me problems at once. So now ye can watch them bleed before I send you off me plank.”

Her hand was twitching toward her thigh, he was still staring down at her but the tips of her fingers were skimming at the hilt of the knife. She needed a distraction, only needed a second to pull her knife and use it.

The Corpirate turned back to them and Michael hoped that he had his full attention on them, which could be enough for her to get her weapon. “As fer the three of ye, we have pulled up to the hangman’s dock. Yer weapons won’t do ye any good, might as well put ‘em down and take it like a man.”

Meg had the knife, was brushing it with the tips of her fingers. She could have it, if she just had one more second.

Lindsay spat on the ground at his feet, “Sexist fuck.”

The Corpirate snarled, and Michael was sure that if Lindsay was any closer she would have gotten pistol whipped, but their distraction was achieved. Meg had her knife in her hand, fingers wrapped so tight around the handle they were white. She still had the Corpirate’s gun trained on her, but she took the chance she had before he moved it to aim at the other three. She swung down blindly and Michael was praying that when she hit the Corpirate didn’t pull the trigger.

The blade sunk deep into his thigh, an amazing hit even if she hadn’t just been aiming blindly, and she was able to twist it in even deeper before he dropped her. He screamed as Meg fell to the floor, her knife still buried in his leg, she went limp when he dropped her and collapsed near his feet. She tried to drag herself away, crawling on the floor toward the side of the room away from his rage, stopping only when she curled against the wall. “Change of plans,” he growled, “you die first, bitch.”

Things were moving in slow motion, a familiar slowdown that he was used to from heist time. The Corpirate turned to fire, opening his body up for just a second as he brought his arm out to aim before he turned to face the wall Meg was crowded up against. Michael didn’t wait, knew he had about a second to fire while the man had his arm stretched out and his shoulders squared to them. A second delay before he would close them off.

Three quick shots, two in the chest and one in the head. The same triangle pattern the hit men used, and guaranteed at least one was a kill. Lindsay fired in the same pattern, her shots landing just left of Michael’s, even Gavin squeezed off a shot or two that landed somewhere near his gut.

He dropped to the floor with a wet thud and the three of them were at Meg’s side before he even finished falling. They slid into the floor and surrounded her with a grounding presence. Gavin ran a hand through her hair as she held him, her face pressed into his neck. Michael held tight to her hand, running a soothing hand down her arm, the action as much for him as it was her. To remind them both that she was alright, and that this whole mess was finally over. Lindsay was doing the same on her other side, but Michael could see that her eyes were trained on the body not far from them. He jerked his head toward the corpse and she nodded, moving away from the group for just a second to take care of the body, he knew she had a routine she had to go through, that she wouldn't be able to really relax till she'd gone through it.

Gavin was watching Lindsay closely, but before Michael could warn him that he probably wouldn’t wanna do that, he pulled Meg closer with a hand on the back of her head, to keep her from looking, as Lindsay slit open the neck of the Corpirate. She wiped her hands on the man’s suit jacket before coming back to them, she took back Meg’s hand and joined them in making small, soothing sounds.

“I’m fine, guys,” she said, her voice muffled where she was speaking pressed into Gavin’s neck. He pulled his hand away, letting her pull away from him to look at them, “Seriously, I’m okay.”

She smiled at the three of them, and though her eyes were watery, she looked sure. He could already see the faint bruising along her neck where he had held her, and could feel the rage simmer up again at the rough treatment she’d received. “Really guys,” she said, “I’m fine, it was kinda anti-climactic, to be honest.”

“Anti-climactic?” He said, raising his voice in a fake outrage, “We shot like four people for you!”

“I know that, I just thought it’d be a little more explosive after all the trouble we went through.”

“You want explosive,” he asked, “cause I can give you explosive, I’ll blow the whole damn building up.”

“You know one of those people we killed is sitting right behind us,” Lindsay said, “we should get out of here before someone else shows up. We can deal with your pyro tendencies some other time.”

They helped Meg off the ground and moved back into the room they had entered through, Michael held her close and let her subtly hide her face in his chest when she saw the bodies lying there. Lindsay used a card that didn’t belong to any of them and he had a feeling that she’d grabbed it off the Corpirate when she’d been taking care of the body. The elevator doors squealed open as the busted and shot up doors tried to move.

“What’s gonna happen after this,” Meg asked as they walked back toward Michael’s apartment.

“I’ll call Geoff when we get back home, he and the other Gents will move in and launch a major takeover.”

“Alright, but what’s going to happen,” she left it hanging, open ended and full of possibility. What was going to happen to them, to her, to the business; actually probably not that last one, Michael had a feeling that she really didn’t care if the Corpirate ate shit in hell, let alone what happened to his meth dealing cover business.

“The Corpirate is gone,” he said, he could see one of his three partners about to comment on that obvious fact but he continued before he could, “ _and_ most of his business will probably fall apart without that psycho there but fuck knows how many people he has like Coal that are loyal to him.”

“Maybe Coal isn’t the best example,” Lindsay pointed out and he would admit she had a point, he _was_ stealing from the company but he also threw out the word betrayal like it was a cardinal sin.

“Whatever, what I was saying is there’s no tellin’ who he told about you, and what he wanted to do to you.”

“What?” Meg said, an edge of panic creeping back into her voice.

“What?” Gavin’s voice echoed hers and suddenly he had three people surrounding him in a much more threatening circle than the one he’d been in only an hour earlier.

“I’m not saying anybody will,” he said defensively, “it’s just a possibility that he might have sent someone else after her, I mean he did hire Lindsay to do it in the first place.”

“So what?” Meg asked, voice climbing in pitch as she worried, “This was all for nothing? I’m still in just as much danger as I was before?”

“No, shit, I’m just saying it’s something we should look out for. You aren’t gonna be in any danger with the Fake AH Crew looking out for you, ‘specially not when you’re dating two members and one of the RWBY assassins. You’ll just keep staying with at our apartment, your place has been burned but we can go get the rest if your stuff from it later.”

“Two members?” Gavin asked with a weird look on his face.

“Our?” Lindsay said with the same weird look.

Michael was starting to think that they should have had some of these conversations a little sooner, they’d been avoiding a lot of things in favor of focusing on the case, and it seemed like they were all coming up right now.

“Yeah, _our_. You already said you weren’t going back to your place after it was bugged. There’s plenty of room in my place for you and Meg, you’ve already been living there.”

There was a hurt look in Gavin’s eyes and the weird look on his face shifted to an even stranger one. It took Michael a second to realize what he said, and when he did, he almost cursed, things had been going well for them until they started trying to talk about them, now that words were involved things just got clumsy and confusing. Things were easier when they were just tangled limbs and soft kisses, not ‘I really like you’s and ‘I don’t know what I’m gonna do if it’s just me in my too large apartment’s.

He tried to fix it though, he really needed to fix it, there wasn’t a chance in hell he’d be able to stand seeing the three of them pack up their things and go back to wherever they’d been before. “The four of us might make it a little tight, but we can always take the apartment across the hall too, with all that money Gav found in Coal’s bank account. We’ll probably need a whole room for all your computer shit, right Gav?”

He wasn’t quite beaming, but there was a hesitant smile on his face that Michael needed to see all the time. He really didn’t want to be the cause of that hurt expression again, it was a little too reminiscent of the feeling he had when Gavin left the first time. “You said two members?” he said his voice matching that same hesitancy that his smile had.

Lindsay had her fingers linked with Gavin and Meg and the smile in her eyes was bright, “Geoff does need someone to buff up security, and I heard a rumor that the crew was hiring.”

“Let’s go home to finish this conversation,” Michael said, “we shouldn’t talk about crew business in the middle of the street.”

“You’re lucky you’re cute when you get whiny.” Lindsay said, using a finger to bop him on the nose as she spoke.

“I’m not whining,” he said, and now yeah he was probably whining, “you handle crew business in darkened rooms with glasses of whisky not out on the street where anybody could hear it.”

“Are we gonna have to deal with your massive hero crush on Geoff now?” Lindsay asked.

“I don’t have,” he tried to say.

“On Geoffrey,” Gavin said in disgust, “ _we’re_ in the same group as Geoff.”

“I don’t have a crush on Geoff!”

“Geoff is kinda handsome,” Meg said.

“Not you too Turney,” Gavin moaned.

“Why do I like any of you,” Michael asked.

“You tell us, apparently we’re in the same category as Geoff,” Gavin said.

“I take it all back,” Michael shouted, walking away from the three of them and in the direction of his apartment, “you can live on the street for all I care, or in whatever shit hole Gavin lives in, I offered you my home like a caring boyfriend and all I’m getting is shit for it.”

“But Micool,” Gavin cooed, dragging their girls along with him as he chased Michael up the street.

“But nothing, you’re all a bunch of dicks.”

“Micoo,” he whined even louder, butchering his name so badly that Lindsay and Meg were giggling as they mimicked the high pitched sound.

“One of you fucks is buying me a new bed, cause I’m done sleeping on the damn couch.”

The three of them laughed at him, something he had a feeling he would have to get used to very quickly. He was always a glutton for punishment, and he had a feeling that they were going to make his life a special sort of hell, and he couldn’t wait.


	16. Epilogue

“Team Nice Dynamite what the hell’s happening?” Geoff said, voice cracking like three times as he yelled. Michael winced, knowing Gavin would have to explain how the earpieces worked again. Six months of having Gavin on the crew and Geoff still didn't get that you didn't have to shout to be heard like the old converted bluetooth sets the used to have.

He ignored him for the time being, he had enough to deal with, with Gavin sitting in his passenger seat shoving at his arm and yelling directions at him, “Step on it, Michael!”

“I’m fucking trying, Gavin,” Michael shouted back, Gavin had lost his earpiece somewhere between the bank and Michael’s car and he shouted to be heard over top of the sounds of the car and the gunshots.

“We’re gonna be late, Michael,” he said for the third time, like Michael didn’t know what time it was and how late the heist was running.

“Oh no, hurry Micoo,” the crew mocked, Gavin’s shouting easily picked up in his comm so they could hear. Their high pitched imitations of Gavin’s voice came like clockwork because the crew loved picking on the two of them.

“Fuck off, we have two lovely ladies waiting for us who will kick our asses when we’re late,” Michael told them, not for the first time either. When Geoff was giving them dates for the heist the two of them had tried to bow out, told Geoff to give the job to Matt and Jeremy or one of the other hundred crew members that had been hired recently; but Geoff insisted that he couldn’t do it without them.

He had also promised that they would be done with this heist before Meg finished giving her report on the six o’clock. Michael and Gavin would never be allowed to hear the end of it if they missed their six month anniversary dinner for a heist.

It was almost hard to believe that it’d been six months since all that shit with the Corpirate had gone down. Things were still hard sometimes, Meg still got a little panicked if she felt like someone was following her and they all had their share of long, sleepless nights but they worked together in a way Michael couldn’t believe. No one spent an insomnia filled night alone, someone was there to take care of every bump in the night, and, even though the panic attacks were rare these days, there was always someone there to help you remember how to breathe. They took care of each other, and would keep doing it for a long time after this.

Their first official date took place not long after the Corpirate was gone, he’d ‘borrowed’ a truck from Geoff and they’d gone to Meg, Lindsay, and Gavin’s apartments and packed up everything they thought they couldn’t live without before saving the rest to be moved into storage by someone else later. They grabbed dinner that night at some tiny hole in the wall place that Meg said she went to all the time when she’d first moved to the city, they were tired and a little sore from having moved boxes out of buildings and into the car and then up to Michael’s apartment. He hadn’t even thought of it being their first date until Lindsay asked if he was gonna make good on his promise for date two to be at the range.

He did. He actually asked Jack before he borrowed their chopper, because unlike with Geoff and his truck he was actually a little worried what would happen when Jack realized he took it without asking. He flew them out to the Crew’s personal shooting range, really it was more like ten miles of desert in the middle of nowhere filled with cars that wouldn’t run anymore and shooting dummies, if you actually wanted to try for target practice. He brought a bunch of new toys for the four of them to play with and was really hoping that Meg and Gavin liked this as much as he knew he and Lindsay would.

It was only their second date, so they were still getting a feel for the way their group worked in a situation that wasn’t life threatening. Their first date had been the four of them and had let them bounce and blend with each other, but they split into twosomes when they were at the range. Gavin grabbed Lindsay by the hand and dragged her over to the one of the dummies, demanding that she teach him how to throw knives. Meg stayed by Michael’s side, her fingers tangled in his as she reminded him that he promised her an explosion.

He helped her shoulder the rocket launcher that he’d brought, pointed her toward a pile of crushed vehicles stacked on one another. He watched her pull the trigger and heard the sound of the cars exploding. He watched her face as the cars caught, even from as far as they were standing he could feel the heat of the flame.

He hadn’t seen anything as beautiful as the look of awe and amazement on her face as she watched the destruction she’d caused. She set down the launcher before running and leaping into his arms. She was squealing with the thrum of excitement that a good explosion caused and she kissed him hard. He could see the flames dancing in her eyes and he was sure he was in love.

He could hear the thunk of knives hitting rubber and a cheer from Gavin. The man bounded up and wrapped his arms around Michael’s other side coming to revel in the chaos with them, and let Michael know he hit the dummy in the nob. He talked Michael into taking the rest of his C-4 and creating a pyrotechnics show for them and they watched the explosions he created once the sun went down. If he’d been sure he was in love with Meg when he saw the flames from her first explosion dancing in her eyes, he was certain he didn’t want to live without any of them as he listened to the three of them giggle as their faces were lit up by the destruction he’d caused.

He was going to let them know that too, had four matching bands sitting in a box in his pocket that he was going to give them tonight. _If_ this heist ever ended, so they could meet the girls for dinner. It was still early in the day, but they would have to wait out the cops before they could go anywhere and they hadn’t even made it to the safe house yet.

“We’re gonna be in the dog house tonight, Gavvy.”

“I don’t want to hear any more about your sex life.” Geoff groaned, which was a very new rule and Michael was definitely gonna call him on it.

“We had to listen to you talk about Griffon for a fucking month before you talked to her!”

“That woman is an artist with a chainsaw, watch your mouth,” Geoff said loud enough that Michael pulled out his ear piece just to keep from going deaf, he filled Gavin on the half of the conversation he missed when the man sent him a confused look.

He handed Gavin his comm and let him shout, “We don’t want to hear any more about your sex life, Geoff.”

They both laughed as Gavin tossed the comm onto the dash of Michael’s car, they were only a couple minutes away from the safe house and he couldn’t make out the LSPD in his rearview anymore. He gunned it, they might just make this date after all

–

“You get the very latest in heists, theft, and gang activity here so be sure to stay tuned to this channel, so you can know what we know and be in the know on this show, heart you.”

Meg smiled as she walked off the soundstage, live reporting wasn't easy on the best of days but today was a heist day, which made it that much worse as she had to simultaneously keep up with the Crew’s antics and share them with the world.

But, tonight was date night, and Lindsay was waiting in the wings to pick her up and that made her stressful day that much better. She was a professional, and still at work, so she didn't run over to greet her girlfriend, but she’d be lying if she said she didn't power walk. She let Lindsay pull her into a tight hug that lifted her off the ground, she giggled a little, and the other girl quickly smothered the sound with a quick peck on the lips.

“Ready to go?” Lindsay asked as she set her back down on the floor.

“Yes,” she said excitedly, it was their big six months and she was looking forward to their planned dinner almost as much as she was looking forward to seeing whatever it was that Michael was planning on doing at that dinner that had him so worked up all week. Assuming, that is, he made it to dinner at all, cause it wasn’t looking so good as she came off air; but their boys still had a little bit of time while they got ready to finish up.

They were just about to leave when Ashley came up beside them. Meg refrained from groaning, but just barely, she'd only been working with the Know for a couple months, but schedules were hectic and there were some nights, usually Wednesdays strangely enough, that she was there all night. She really didn't wanna get stuck at the office because Geoff picked date night to rob the bank.

"Meg, just wanted to say what an awesome job you've been doing," Ashley said, "I know you wanna get out of here, just wanted to let you know how great it’s been working with you!"

Meg grinned, Ashley had really been a huge help when she'd first gotten started. Helping her learn the ropes about what she could and couldn't say, both legally and because it would put her in a situation much like the one she'd just gotten out of. Ashley was the one who first let her in on the big secret to the Know’s success: people want the news, but they want the gossip even more. So let them know that the Triad is planning on moving in on the Corpirate’s old territory, but also let them know that the Vagabond has been seen hanging around Ruby Rose a lot recently.

It didn't matter if it was true or not, the people ate it up, _and_ because of it there was a rumor going around about her and Ryan being a thing, all because she laughed at the faces Gavin was making off camera while she talked about the Vagabond’s latest exploits. It annoyed Gavin to no end, Michael and Lindsay both found it hilarious, and Ryan kept making it worse by calling in as the Vagabond and flirting shamelessly to add fuel to the fire.

“Thanks Ash, you guys have been great helping me get settled. You here for the rest of the night?"

"Nah, Bruce and Adam are gonna handle it from San Andres."

Lindsay laughed, "Is that smart after Funhaus just ran their first big heist not even a week ago?"

Ashley waved away the concern, "Everyone is gonna be more worried about the Fake AH Crew robbing the bank than they are about Funhaus sticking up some convenience store. But even if they get caught it'll give Risinger something to do, the Crew hasn’t needed their defense lawyer very much recently. Now get outta here, you two kids have fun on date night."

"Thanks Ash, I'll see you tomorrow."

They were barely out of Ashley's earshot when Lindsay was nudging her, "You just got a compliment from Jinx, I can't believe you get to work with her every day."

Meg remembered that this was the first time that Lindsay had actually come to pick her up, and it was probably her first time really meeting Ashley. She sometimes forgot that her coworker was an ex-assassin and Lindsay was almost too sweet to be one, not with the way she has to stop and pet every cat she passed on the street. "It’s just Ashley, babe."

"Just Ashley, that's Jinx! She's one of the original female assassins, she was a _Frag Doll_ , they were international. You know they're part of the reason any girl can make it in this business."

"I know, Linds," she said, dragging her girlfriend out of the soundstage with her, as cute as it was to watch Lindsay geek out about other professionals, they really had to get out of there; and it had as much to do with them needing to get ready as it did her not wanting to get dragged back on air. "C’mon were gonna be late."

"No, _we’re_ going to be just fine, Michael and Gavin are gonna be late. Don't know if you remember how you were just describing them careening into the safe house, but they'll be a while."

"That was Ryan and Geoff, our boys got there a little earlier, but if they're too late then we'll just start the fun without them."

Lindsay pressed another kiss to her cheek, "Love the way you think, Turney."

Michael and Gavin ran into the restaurant, and skid into their seats like they were trying to make it into homeroom before the final bell, they were really only twenty minutes late, she’d been willing to wait an hour before they gave up and had the dinner by themselves. They'd changed out if their heist gear but she could tell that's all they'd done. She could still see the adrenaline making Gavin’s eyes bright and wide and could faintly smell the gunpowder and explosives on Michael's skin. The boys both took their hands and pressed a soft kiss to their palm as an apology for being late before launching into some of the more exciting moments of the heist they'd just finished.

Michael was jumpy all night, a different jumpy than he usually got after a successful heist. She watched him fidget in his seat wondering how long it would take before he spilled whatever he had on his mind that had him so worked up.

The night was winding down, the four of them smiling and talking with their fingers entwined and a drink in front of each of them. Michael kept reaching into his jacket before taking his hand away as he looked around the table, it was starting to make _her_ a little jumpy. She wondered if she was wrong about him planning something and that instead the calm after the Corpirate storm was coming to an end, if there was someone there waiting to finish what he’d started. Months old anxiety was trying to bubble to the surface and she almost jumped when a red faced Michael set a large ring box down on the table.

He wouldn’t look at any of them and left Lindsay to open the box as he stared out the window just over her shoulder. Meg’s breath caught in her throat at the sight of four black bands sitting in the velvet box, identical except for the width of two of them. He was proposing, or whatever the equivalent was when it involved three people instead of one. Lindsay took one of the thinner bands and slipped it on her finger before taking the other and gently sliding it on Meg’s. Gavin was doing the same on the other side of the table, hand shaking in his excitement to put the ring on Michael’s hand. “Yes, you donut,” he said to the question Michael hadn’t actually asked, managing to convey just how ridiculous it was that Michael had seemed nervous about their answer in those three words.

His answer let Michael release the breath he’d been holding, like he thought they would say anything else, and it gave Lindsay and Meg the time to lean over the table and give their answer through a kiss. She and Lindsay both examined the bands in the light, and she could feel a grin splitting her face as she saw how wonderfully the black band contrasted with her pale skin.

She spent the rest of the dinner laughing with her partners; loving the feeling of the new weight on her ring finger, and, despite the anxiety that had tried to bubble up earlier, she actually found herself glad for everything that had happened to her all those months ago. Without it, she never would have met the three of them, and she was happier now than she thought she'd ever been. She had a job she loved, people she loved even more, and the promise of a lot of fun later that night when they got home, she really wouldn't have it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has followed me on this wild ride, this is the longest thing I've ever written to date and I had an absolute blast doing it. Thank you for all the kind words I've received and for every kudos, you guys are the best and I hoped you've liked reading as much as I've liked writing. This is hella cheesy but it can't be helped, <3 you

**Author's Note:**

> Shameless plug, here's my tumblr [formosusiniquis](http://formosusiniquis.tumblr.com/) all updates will also be posted here as well as updates on progress and stuff if you're interested in that. My ask is open too so feel free to stop by and chat anytime you want.


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